


A Time To Play, A Time To Plan, A Time To Win

by elvirakitties



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst and Humor, Bottom Severus Snape, Bottom Tom Riddle, Bottom Voldemort, Dark Harry Potter, Evil Dumbledore, Evil Voldemort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Master/Slave, Non-Canon Relationship, Potions, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Pre-Slash, Romance, Sex, Slash, Top Harry, Top Harry Potter, Virgin Severus Snape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-05-14 14:25:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 48,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5747800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elvirakitties/pseuds/elvirakitties
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry has a plan</p><p> </p><p>****This isn't a bdsm story, this isn't going to become one either******</p><p>This story will have Severus in the role of a slave, but all is not always what it seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It Begins.

Severus looked around, he groaned. This wasn't his room in his quarters at the castle or his house. He didn't have a great feeling about this, of course, the chain leading from the headboard to the collar around his neck wasn't a good indicator either. He tugged on the collar and chain, nothing happened. The collar didn't have a seam that he could feel. He looked at the chain he couldn't find how it was hooked to the headboard. None of the links had seams either. He would have admired the craftsmanship if it wasn't being used on him. He tried summoning his wand and that failed. He leaned back into the pillows. The bed was at least comfortable. 

The room was very nice, done in soothing greens and black. The drapes around the bed weren't drawn, yet the drapes on the window were, leaving the room almost as if it was dusk outside. The bed was huge, it was big enough for four people, covered in deep forest green sheets with a black comforter. He was dressed in black silk sleepwear, yet he wasn't chilly. He shifted and realized something was around his waist, he pulled the waist of the sleep pants down and saw a leather belt with chains that lead underneath him. His cock was in a cage and when he shifted he felt something inside of him. He let out a moan as it hit his pleasure spot. He was in trouble. He quickly realized how, again, it was comfortable. It wasn't tight, it wasn't chaffing, it felt safe.

He laid there for a while trying to think. He didn't remember anything that would lead him to this position. He didn't think the Dark Lord had done this. It wasn't his style, he would make a big dramatic production out of it. He would have all the Death Eaters there to enjoy the show, he would have also made it very painful. He knew Albus wouldn't have, he wasn't that kind of person, yes, he was little controlling and manipulative but this wasn't his style. So who did this? What was the point of doing it? Why? He fell asleep wondering.

He jerked awake when he heard the door open. He realized it was really the knock that woke him before the door was opened. "I see you are now awake." A voice he thought sounded familiar. He tried to place it as the person, a male walked towards him.

"YOU!" He shouted, jerking himself up, catching himself short as the chain brought him to a quick stop. He leaned back down in the bed, glaring.

"Yes, me." Harry responded. "I was very surprised how easy it was to get possession of you."

"What did you do? Let me go this instant." Snape demanded. He was furious, how dare this brat do this to him.

"Sorry, not going to happen, you see you belong to me now. You were a gift. It's even registered at the Ministry. You are listed as a familiar animal. I believe he used the mark he had on you to allow that to happen." He tilted his head. "Dumbles was most insistent of that, he wanted to make sure you were legally registered. He was slightly overly helpful, but I will explain why in a few minutes."

"He did this to me?" Snape spat out. He was going to kill the old fool when he got his hands on him. He started thinking of poisons he could use that would be untraceable, after he was well away from the scene of the crime, of course.

"Yes, he is responsible for the registering of you and giving you to me. It was part of my deal with him to not press multiple charges against him and the Order." Harry replied. "Line theft, stealing from my vault, leaving me to be abused, forcing all those potions and charms on me and my personal favorite kidnapping and attempted rape. He was very willing to give you up in exchange for his freedom." 

Snape's eyes grew big when he heard all that. Harry continued speaking. "You do realize he kept your inheritance away from you? You were never disinherited. I found that out when I went to the bank this afternoon to take care of your finances, since you now belong to me, image my surprise when they added Lord Prince to my names. That was why he was so insistent that he register you. I believe he thought I wouldn't find out that way since you would be registered as an animal, he most likely thought he could retain control of those vaults and proxy seats. The man is really so surprisingly sure of himself. Bloody idiot is what he is."

Snape inhaled deeply and froze. "You had better explain everything, but first remove all this stuff from my person."

"I will explain, gladly, however, nothing is being removed. You belong to me and I will train you, fully." Harry stated as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "If you are a good boy I will provide you with a bath later."

Snape growled. "I am not your property, I am not your plaything. I am Severus Tobias Snape and I am free."

"Wrong on all accounts. Your name is now Severus Potter, of course, I could just change it to Pet and leave it at that, but your tag already says your name." Harry informed him, indicating the piece of metal hanging from Severus' collar.

Snape looked at Potter, he was crazy, that had to be it. The boy had lost all his marbles. He glanced down at his left arm, pulled back the sleeve and saw his dark mark was gone. "Your new mark is on the back of your shoulder. I didn't like where it was before. Plus, I don't think it's anyone else's business what it looks like either."

He handed Snape two mirrors and Snape pulled down the top off of his shoulder and looked. His new mark was a golden cauldron with a pale green lightning bolt on it. There was steam coming up from the cauldron making the initials H and P. He looked sick for a second. He was grateful, however, that it wasn't something ugly like his previous mark. He was also away from the crazed Dark Lord, that was an added bonus, however, he went from having two Masters to just the one boy for his Master.

"You are my new Master." He couldn't believe it. How had this been done? He thought the Dark Lord would get him killed one day. He never expected Albus to be capable of doing something like this. He thought Albus would actually protect him.

"Yes, and you will accept it. I will demand your full obedience and you will be very well trained by the time I am finished with you. We only have all summer to make sure of it." 

Snape swallowed, he couldn't believe this. "The story if you please."

"Correctly, Severus or you will be punished. You know how this works. From here on out, you will be punished for your mistakes, if you knowingly make them." Harry stated.

"The story if you please, Master." Snape almost choked on the word. He couldn't believe he was going to have to call Potter, Master. He certainly wasn't going to obey him and as soon as he could he would be escaping.

"In case you are wondering, your collar as a lot of nice features. One of them is that I can summon you to me, no matter where you are. Even if you were inside Hogwarts. I will tell you the others soon, but to the story." He paused and tilted his head at Severus. "Yes, the story of how you became mine."

"It all started last year after the graveyard. Dumbles really should have made sure I was okay. He didn't you know. He left me in his office bleeding for a long time before he demanded I tell him what happened, I almost fainted a few times from blood loss and that spider venom, but he didn't care. It wasn't until he was satisfied that he finally let me go to see Poppy. I walked there by myself, left a trail of blood, Filch complained about it when he first saw me, I explained what happened. He helped me get to Poppy. He is a nice guy if people actually talked to him. How do you think I was always out after curfew and never caught? He knew." Harry smiled a bit at those memories. "Back to the story. After I was dumped at my lovely relatives again." Snape heard the loathing in the term lovely. "I really started thinking about a lot of things, and realized stuff wasn't adding up."

Snape was puzzled, the loathing didn't make sense, his relatives treated him like a Prince. Why would he hate them? 

"Did you know he left me there with just a note, at night in November with just a blanket on for my relatives to find me in the morning? They weren't very happy about having a wizard on their doorsteps. They hate magic, tried to beat it out of me, I never knew what "it" was until Hagrid told me I was a wizard and magic was real. My family had turned me into their little house elf. All those things you imagined, I wish they were true, oh how I wished they were true." He smiled as if dreaming.

Snape decided he didn't want to interrupt the boy, but he was finding it hard to believe Albus would do that. He thought to all the times Minerva or anyone would ask about the boy and they got derailed, if he asked, he got James Potter tossed at him, never Lily. Always James, until the boy showed up for school and Dumbledore wanted him to do something, then he would use Lily. Yes, things weren't making sense. He should have seen this sooner, that crazy old coot.

"He sent Hagrid to get me when none of the letters got a response. Did you know the letter was addressed to "the cupboard under the stairs"? I wondered how could no one not do a thing about that last year. I found out they look at the envelopes of the Muggle-born students, did you know that? Dumbles tried to say they didn't. That made me wonder, so I researched. I wondered how do you know where to visit the Muggle-born if you didn't look at the envelope, I knew a magically quill addressed the envelope, but someone needed to read them if a Professor was to visit. I looked it up, they read the envelopes." He reined in his emotions. "Back to Hagrid, he got me from my relatives, he saw how they treated me. When Hagrid arrived my uncle had a shotgun pointed at me and was about ready to kill me." Harry looked at Snape and Snape returned his stare. "Following along?"

Snape didn't answer, as he was trying to figure out everything the boy was saying to him. It made a lot of sense, and yet it was against everything Dumbledore had told them about the boy. Seeing how he was now collared and chained, he was willing to believe that the senile old goat had been lying to them all.

Harry sighed. "How did anyone know what happened if I was the only survivor? I was only fifteen months so they couldn't have asked me. They just assumed it was Voldemort who killed my parents. I mean they knew about the Longbottom attack since they caught the Lestranges, but really they found just a pile of ashes, and couldn't or rather no real way to tell to whom they belonged. I read the reports you know. It was all guess work done by Dumbles. He was the one who said what happened. Now, don't you find that strange?"

Harry tilted his head, again, as if searching for something. Severus felt he was trying to read him. "He is the only one who knows the whole prophecy. Yes, I know all about it wasn't hard to find out, just a quick trip to the Ministry. What no one ever tells anyone is there is a ton of prophecies just sitting there. Most of them don't come true, No one really knows what they mean until after the fact or even whom they are for or when unless a name is given. No name was mentioned in mine yet Dumbles stated it was about me. Think about it, how many children over the years have been born on July 31? He was also the one who did the Fidelus Charm, so he had to know who the secret keeper was. He sealed my parents' Wills. Did you know you were to get me after Sirius since Remus couldn't? Are you getting the idea?"

Snape just looked at Harry and slowly realized the boy was indeed, correct. Everything he was saying started to make sense in what he knew was missing from the picture he had formed. All the questions he had asked over the years and never got answered.

"I know you were the one who heard part of it. Did you ever wonder why he did an interview in a pub? Why she showed up and loudly stated why she was there? Have you ever heard her be loud after that? Have you ever wondered why there wasn't any privacy charms or wards up? You were meant to hear." 

Snape almost slammed his head into the headboard, how could he have been so stupid. He could believe everything he heard, as it made sense, more sense than what Albus liked to spew at him. "How did you find all that out?"

"Don't make me give you a lesson so soon."

"How did you find all that out, Master?" Severus choked at bit on the word that time.

"You really think I am that bad at Occlumency? You be surprised at how easy it was to fool you into believing and seeing into your mind at the same time. You never felt it, except when I forced a headache onto you."

"Why you little-" 

"Temper temper Severus, you really want to watch what you are going to say." 

Snape glared at him but closed his mouth. He didn't want to know what else this boy was able to do. He wasn't even sixteen yet and look at what he had done. He wanted to also hear more about what happened.

"Go on then, Master." He snapped, which earned him a slap across his face, it wasn't a harsh slap, just a slight sting, nothing that would leave a mark, and he knew his cheek wasn't even red.

"Watch your tone, Severus, I do mean exactly what I say." Harry informed him. Snape looked shocked for a minute then glared only to receive another slap. "You will earn more than that if you keep it up." 

Snape looked down, he didn't want another slap or worse. He was a natural submissive and he didn't like where this was leading in his mind or body. He had longed for a true master and not a crazy one like Voldemort or Albus. Voldemort, he sought out while Albus, he ran to. He went to Albus to escape. 

"Now to continue, Hagrid was the one, who as you know, took the Stone out of the bank. I think everyone knew that. The man can't keep a secret. Now what you didn't know is he made sure to let me know he was doing it for dear old Dumbles. You know the rest of the story regarding the stone, well according to Dumbles that is. There are a few missing pieces on that and what happened at the train station."

Harry conjured a glass of water and handed it to Severus. Severus was surprised, he had summoned it wandless and non-verbal. "Drink, you must be thirsty." Snape took the glass of water and drank it. He wasn't sure what he was going to hear next, but so far he wasn't happy with what he was hearing. 

"Hagrid gave me my ticket to get to the Express but he never told me how to get to it. I, at the time, didn't think it was strange that Molly Weasley and her family were outside the barrier chatting up about muggles and platform 9 3/4. If I had I would have run the other way, but I didn't, I was so grateful to find someone who could help me. That is how I made a friend with the idiot Ron. Hermoine was also a setup. I didn't know it at the time, but I should have wondered how a Muggle-born who was allowed to use magic before school started and during the summer each year. I was informed we couldn't, but that mistake I never caught until last year when I was thinking about things. I also found out I was never given any of those prep books that muggles get. The ones that teach you how to write with a quill, the different things about potions ingredients, the cuts, the way to measure, and other important information. It set me back right from the very get-go. I, at first, thought I just needed to study harder, and I did. You never believed it, but that is fine, I spent more time in the library than Hermoine did, just no one knew. You see I am able to make sure no one sees me when I don't want them too, the cloak at Christmas was an added bonus. Did you know he stole that from my vault to give it to me at Christmas?" Harry looked at Snape. "Any questions?"

"You really didn't get any of those books? You didn't know what I was talking about the first day when I asked you those questions, Master?" Snape asked clearly confused. Those books were to be given to every Muggle raised child, not just Muggle-born. They were meant to help get them caught up to where a wizard child was in their education. 

"No, I didn't. I knew you hated me for some reason according to Ron after we left the class. It wasn't until last year I realized what you meant by those questions. That is the reason why I pulled you away from them. Those questions are also the reason why I decided to save you from Dumbles." 

"I am your slave." Snape snapped. He knew bitterness and anger were in his voice. He got slapped again.

"Watch the tone. Yes, you are, but you are missing a key question." 

"What key question, Master?" Snape's curiosity peaked.

"Why." 

"So why?" He saw the hand coming and quickly added, "Master." The hand dropped.

"Because if I didn't get you away, Dumbles planned on using you to kill him this year. Well, he was going to pretend to die, you would have thought you really did kill him. You would have been a very wanted man. He planned to come back to life after I killed Voldemort then kill me saying I was going to be the next Dark Lord. The problem is he didn't count on me going to Gringotts and getting my freedom from him, finding out about all my Lordships, the money he stole from me, or the marriage contract he set up for me with Ginny. The girl even tried to slip me a lust potion and jump my bones, hence the attempted rape. Since in the Black family charter it's illegal to have a marriage contract without the Lord's permission it was invalid, hence line theft. I was Lord Black after the Triwizard Tournament, I was the heir before that. Sirius lost his right to it when he was imprisoned, I could have claimed it earlier with the Potter lordship when I was eleven since I was the last of the Potters, but that daft coot never told me that, hence another line theft. Also, he was using all my proxies, all 45 of them, from all the different Lordships I have. I also own Hogwarts, he was to inform me when I entered the castle. Allowing me to have access to the castle accounts, wards, and anything else regarding the castle, you get the idea, I do hope."

Snape nodded his head, he was feeling lost. His mentor had set him up like that. The one man he had trusted sold him. The one man he thought cared about him. "If I killed him, it would have made me looked like a true Death Eater, and that I was loyal to the dark. The Dark Lord would have me with him all the time, since he would know I couldn't go back to Hogwarts, unless he took control of it, Master." He didn't want to think of the tortures the Dark Lord have made him suffer if he had to remain around the man.

"Correct. We all know how he treats his people. Can you imagine being around him all the time? Dumbles also would have reunited the Light faction with his death. He was willing to play the sacrificial lamb. He also believes I don't know about the Horcruxes." 

Severus shook his head at that image. "You said I am missing other pieces of the puzzle, Master." Snape stated, "what am I missing?" He was having a hard time with the information and his new status.

"The Stone, in my first year, you were to protect wasn't real. Dumbles kept the real one, I took it this year and replaced it with a fake. I don't think he knows that as of yet. He knew about the Chamber all along. He knew Sirius was innocent as I am sure you guessed from my earlier statement. He knew Moody was a fake, really how could he not. The guy was his best friend and the fake was there for 10 months and he didn't know it wasn't Moody, and when Umbitch was using that blood quill he knew that too. The wards told him that."

"BLOOD QUILL!" Snape yelled. Harry held out his hand and showed him the lines etched into it. "I am going to kill them." He waited for the hand to slap him as he had yelled and tried to get off of the bed.

"No, not for that, never for something like that, Severus. Emotionally outbursts are going to be expected. Umbridge is already dead, can't say I am sorry about that at all. The Forbidden Forest took care of her. For him, I am planning on exacting revenge. He made a huge mistake in our exchange. You see I only asked for you in exchange for me not telling the Aurors or Madam Bones about what he did. He never mentioned letting the Goblins tell them or having me provide interviews with the newspapers or anything of the like. He made me sign a contract which I read very closely, another of his mistake was he had Moody write it up. Moody wrote exactly what we agreed upon, he didn't cover goblins or others. Neither of them is very Slytherin. Moody doesn't know anything about writing up a contract. Left a lot of nice glaring loopholes for me to use, that contract is just full of them and I intend to take full advantage of them."

Snape looked at the boy again. "Are you sure you shouldn't have been in Slytherin, Master?" He actually admired the boy for that.

"The hat did want me there. However, between Hagrid, Ron, and meeting Draco beforehand made me not want to have anything to do with Slytherin."

"That will do it." Mumbled Snape. "Draco isn't very cunning, Master, he may be my godson but he is an idiot at times."

"I should say so. If I heard him one more time say "wait until I tell my father" I think I was going to start responding back "let me write it to him, I am sure I have your whining down pat." 

"So if this was to get me, why am I chained, Master?" Snape asked.

"Because part of the contract is that I have to have you fully trained by the time we go back to school. If I don't you will be enrolled in one of those slave obedience classes by the Ministry, and you know what those are like." Harry shuddered at that idea.

Snape shuddered, also, he heard the horror stories from those classes. Granted most of the ones in those classes were classified as creatures and were there for their improvement, he didn't believe that line at all. They weren't considered to be slaves, but they were given to someone to take care of them afterward for their own good, right for their own good, he thought. It was easy to find yourself in one if you didn't get Azkaban for breaking some minor law. The classes used a very harsh enslavement spell to help you learn to behave.

"I see you have heard of them." 

"Yes." Severus quickly corrected himself. "Master." 

"You are going to have to start addressing me correctly. We only have two months." Harry informed him. "After that, we are going to fix Dumbles once and for all, but we have to do it inside of Hogwarts because I need to get control over it so that the Dark Wanker can't." 

"Why not this summer?" Snape asked he got slapped again. "Sorry Master." He couldn't believe he just apologized for not remembering.

"If I tried it this summer, he would use the contact to force you into those classes, which I don't want. I like your mind intact." 

Snape leaned his head back against the headboard, thinking for a few minutes. "He would make me go to those classes if you took the castle during the summer or if you resided in the castle, Master?

"Sadly, both. He made that clear nothing was to happen this summer except your training. He is up to something, I know, but what I was thinking of is using the Chamber to go in and out, that isn't residing, that is just visiting. Jules, the sorting hat will keep me informed of what is going on. There is also a nice big snake that needs to be harvested." Harry stated.

Snape smirked at him and nodded his agreement. "About this training, how deeply does it have to be, Master?" 

"Total control, however, he didn't mention you have to be respectful or anything to anyone else. He failed to notice that in the contract. It is really a very sad contract, but it just says "under my total control, respectful and obedient." Harry grinned, letting Severus catch his meaning. Severus gave a small smirk. "I will let you read it later. I also have some laws we need to review. You see, I intend to revoke his use of my proxies on the past laws if I don't like the law that passed or didn't. There is a lot of laws we have to review. It should create a lot of problems for him. Of course, he only knows about 24 of the proxies, so with the rest of them I am sure I can change a lot of laws to what I want."

"What about the Dark Lord, Master?"

Harry gave Snape an evil grin. "I believe I am taking care of that as we speak." Snape raised an eyebrow in question. "I sent out a bunch of "fake" Ministry notices, inside the notices was the same spell I used on you to change your mark. The spell is in parsel so no one will be able to detect it. As they open them, it will set the spell up, tomorrow night and every night for the next week or so I am going to cast the release spell, so when they wake up in the morning, they have a totally different mark on a different part of their bodies. No two marks will be the same or in the same location, each will also have a different language trigger word for it to be reset or removed. The Dark Lord will have to first find the language for each person, find the trigger word and find the correct way to remove the spell if he wants to remark his people again. I made it so no two of them are in the same language or trigger word."

"How much time have you had to put all this together, Master?" He was impressed, no one ever thought of doing that.

"At the end of my fourth year, that summer I got tired of my abusive relatives, decided to make a fake me, and left the wards and stayed the summer at Black Manor. Sirius had given me the port key to there. No one knew I was there and I was able to work on spells, potions and other fun and interesting things. The Black Library is very impressive, of course, I and Kreacher had to hide things because I knew the Order was meeting there. When they were there we "disappeared". Dumbles, I think, believes Kreacher is dead. Spent my fifth year studying down in the Chamber, ROR and of course the library, after trying to avoid Umbitch's detentions. Figured if she couldn't find me, she couldn't pass out as many." 

Snape sighed and looked at Harry. "How did you find out about his plans for next year, Master?"

"The idiot informed me of Horcruxes. Seems the Dark Wanker made a bunch, including me, which Dumbles didn't tell me about and Darkness there doesn't know about. He left out his pensive for me to look into, regarding the prophecy, he went on to talk about our connection. It didn't take a rocket scientists to figure out the rest. I cast the spell on me, and poof instant Horcrux. I know he knows. He has been testing me year after year for a reason. He didn't like my response to his deeds, but he feels safe in thinking he is still in control, so that is why he was so willing to give you up. I believe he thinks he will still be able to use you to follow up on his plans. He believes he will still control you when we go back, and the one plan about his death flashed through his head as he was thinking about you. I caught it as it did. You see him not knowing how good I am, he doesn't protect his mind, and I catch stuff."

"We have to take my training seriously, Master?"

"Deadly." 

Snape groaned. He knew he couldn't fake it, his temper would give that away too quickly. Also, if he had to stop and think about obeying instead of just doing it like second nature that would ruin the game also. "The Dark Lord will find out, about this I mean, Master."

"I think he is going to be more worried about getting his followers back before he is going to come after us. Especially when we start using the newspapers, Goblins, and rumors to discredit Dumbles. He will just believe we are doing his job for him. Why come after us if we are taking care of Dumbles for him? He just doesn't know I know about the Horcruxes and have already destroyed 3 of them. One was the diary in my second year, one was at Sirius' place, the Slytherin Locket and one were in the ROR." 

Snape nodded his head in agreement. "I am going to have a hard time with this one way and in another way, Master, but at the same time I will be accepting of it."

"Yes, I know. You are a natural submissive but you don't like to give in that easy and your temper isn't going to help either." 

Snape closed his eyes, he really didn't want to know how this boy knew so much. Really, he didn't. What he already learned was frying his brain he thought. How could he have missed so much? "You do realize Dumbles played the whole magically world, not just you?" Harry asked.

Snape opened his eyes at that. "He didn't play you, Master."

"Oh he tried, almost succeeded. But he keeps doing the same mistakes over and over. He keeps leaving abused kids with their abusers. He did it with Tom, with you and me. Now think about all those problems just Tom caused, add you to the mix. You can say you didn't do much of anything but think of all the stuff my bully of a father and Sirius lead you and others to do. You joined the Dark Lord for revenge and you also did get my father and Sirius back during school, but they drove you to the Dark Lord. What Dumbles did afterward wasn't right either." He touched Severus gently on the arm. 

"Now, add the misery of your life at Hogwarts by Dumbles all in the name of making you a better person. He kept you on a short leash but didn't give you any of the approval or acceptance you needed. Now add me. The fame, please that is as fickle as fate, the yearly trials, the conflict he created between the two of us, he is blinded by what he considers the little things and instead focuses on using his pawns to protect what he feels is his king. His king is his fame, his queen is his power over others, his knights are his wisdom he thinks he has, his rooks are those he considers his political allies and his castle is the castle. His pawns are us, his former students that aren't Slytherin, the teachers, of course, the Order who fall under all those previously stated people, and the magical and muggle world he views as his own chess board and he uses his pawns to control what others think."

"Are you sure you aren't Slytherin, Master?" Snape asked.

Harry laughed. "The hat wanted me there, but well, you heard about my introduction to the magical world." Harry stood up. "Get some rest, tomorrow you start training. I do expect it will be a long two months. Dobby will bring you dinner in about an hour." Harry left the room.

Snape laid down in the bed, he had a lot to think about and he began to review what he was just told. He shuddered and agreed it was going to be a long two months. He couldn't believe he had been sold to Harry Potter by the one person he thought he could trust. He believed what Potter had told him, it made sense. He felt used by Dumbledore and he was angry. He let out a groan.

The next two months were hard, Severus learned quickly not just because of Harry's training, but because he wanted to learn and make sure they could repay Dumbles fully. He got punished a few times, but Harry never abused him. Harry always explained what was going to happen, why it was going to happen and then walked through it step by step as he did anything from beginning his training, anything new, to his punishment. Harry listened to Severus over any concerns or issues he had. No one ever listened to Severus when he had concerns or issues, that was surprising to Severus. 

He was never yelled at, never punished without a reason and never went without anything from food to a good night's rest. He was healthier, well rested, and happier than he could ever remember. He didn't like his training, that was a given, but he learned. One word from his Master would have him on his knees, head bowed, back straight and waiting for whatever his Master required of him. He obeyed his Master's voice instantly. His Master wasn't afraid to give him a lot of praise and affection. Severus found he loved that, no one had ever done that before. His Master took care of him, praised him, cuddled him, held him in his arms. He was spoiled by his Master. 

Severus didn't realize he needed being care for as badly as he did until his Master provided so much of it. Sexually was different. It went very slowly as Severus was a virgin and Harry didn't want to rush him, which he was grateful for. They were still at the cuddling stage. Severus slept every night in the same bed as his Master and always woke up curled around him. His Master would let Severus make the first move when it came to moving forward in their relationship. His Master made them talk about each step and Severus felt safe and secure for the first time in his life. 

Severus would read with his head in his Master's lap, his Master would run his fingers through his hair. His Master enjoyed reading with Severus' head in his lap. They had spent many hours this way.

Nothing in the contract required Severus to be trained in that way that required sex, and his Master wasn't going to force him. He had a copy of the contract so he could read it and he was surprised at the glaring loopholes in it. His Master was correct they could pay back Dumbles without breaking it, he was looking forward to it. After all, the two months was nearly over. He glanced at his Master, his Master smiled at him and stated, "yes, Pet, it's almost time. We will make them pay." Severus did smile at that. 

The Dark Lord still was trying to get his followers back. A lot of his followers didn't want to return, very few returned. The Dark Lord was still trying to override the marks, he had tried placing his mark again, only to have it fail. He was now in the process of trying to figure out which language Lucius' was in. Lucius was doing everything possible to avoid seeing the Dark Lord. He had taken to warding his Manor against the Dark Lord and others had followed suit.

All his snakes, some of his Master's friends and a few others from each house were supportive of Harry. Harry was determined to make Dumbledore pay and he would. They had help now. They had a lot of people spread out to help take care Dumbledore and the Dark Lord when the time was right to strike. They also had a lot of former Death Eaters, who wanted nothing to do with Dumbles or the Dark Lord. Lucius had recruited a lot of former Death Eater, Draco recruited their kids and other snakes. 

Draco had been a surprise to his Master as well as to Severus. He didn't think the boy actually would be able to get over his rivalry with Harry, but he surprised them.

Severus glanced up to his Master, he rolled onto his side and began to close his eyes. He felt a blanket laid over him. "No wonder he never wants to go out, you have him so spoiled." He heard Draco say.

"Jealous?" His Master asked.

"No, he deserves some happiness, I just came here to see if everything is all set for when we return?" 

Severus fell asleep to his Master's voice.


	2. Getting Ready to Returning to Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They are ready

"Master, it's a letter from Dumbles." Severus said as he enter his Master's office.

"What does he want?" Harry asked as he looked up as Severus moved into the room.

"I believe it is going to be about me returning to Hogwarts to set up my classroom and the labs. I will also need to go shopping for ingredients that we haven't already collected, Master." Severus took his usual seat in front of his Master's desk. He saw the pile of books and parchment. He wondered what his Master was researching now.

"I really don't want to use any of our ingredients for the school. However, we don't have time to gather everything for Hogwarts. So, we either owl order or if we can just bill the school for our time and the ingredients." Harry informed him. Severus smiled and handed him the bill he already wrote up. "I am taking it the old goat won't be expecting this?"

"No, Master, he won't. I usually always just gathered the items and he never thought about how much time it took or how much it might have cost the school." Severus paused, "I did give him a slight discount, if he puts up a stink, you can use that, the ungrateful miser that he is."

Harry nodded and opened the letter, he read it and sighed. "The old goat wants you to be the DADA Professor this year, and has someone by the name of Horace Slughorn teaching Potions." Severus looked furious. Harry waited for Severus to gain control of his anger. "Tell me."

"That man almost killed a few students, there were a few permanently scarred and disfigured because of him. He collects people he thinks will be famous and gives them his full attention. He even had a club he made for just that purpose, the Slug Club." Severus paused. "I am also wondering about the curse on the DADA job. If I won't be there next year."

"You will be, I won't let him keep you away from me, also I am hoping by next year, the old goat will be gone, his reputation in ruins and hopefully the Dark Wanker will be after him." Harry told him.

Severus relaxed at those words. He didn't want to be away from his Master for ten months. "Master, when does he expect me to return?"

Harry glanced down at the letter and read it, again. "That is strange, he doesn't say when. He just tells me about Slughorn and you doing the DADA position. I do hope he isn't expecting you to get there and do all that work in the few hours before the Welcoming Feast. I also hope Slughorn has gathered ingredients or ordered them. We will bring ours just in case for our use, unless we get paid for them, of course."

"Of course, Master." He paused and glanced down. He wasn't sure how his Master would take this information. "I can do the lesson plans here, I have copies of all the previous DADA Professors plans, due to the lack of teaching skills on their parts, I used them to help fill in my house's lack of education, Master. I know you had that club you mentioned you taught last year, I am wondering if we can have it again this year, but with just our people."

"I don't see why not. We need to make sure Granger and Weasley don't catch on. I don't want them running to the old goat and telling him." Harry told him. "Severus, why did you think I would be upset about that information?"

"I did it in secret, no one knew about it. I put wards up in our house common room to prevent him from knowing. Now, however, I am not sure how we can prevent him from finding out about us continuing the club, Slughorn will be able to get into the common room, he was a Slytherin and the former head, so I can't forbid him from entering. I am not sure where we can go, Master, unless we use the Chamber."

Severus had enjoyed their ventures into the Chamber. They had fully harvested the Basilisk.

*******Flashback*******

Severus stood in the great Chamber of Secrets. He looked around and almost gasped in fear when he saw the size of the Basilisk. "You killed that thing when you were twelve, Master." He looked at Harry and wondered if it was just sheer dumb luck that indeed saved his Master or like his Master was showing him, he was full of surprises and skills. 

"Yes, thing chased me all around first. Didn't want to kill it, tried to talk to it, but it was just as crazy as Tom was. Well, Tom is still nuts but you get the idea." Harry informed him. "If you want to harvest it, while I explore some?"

"You aren't exploring without me, I don't trust you not to get hurt or find something interesting, Master. You seem to find interesting things faster than anyone I have ever met." Severus informed him.

Harry laughed. "I do, don't I? How about we harvest this monster, and I want to explore back behind that statue and over by that wall. When I was running around here, there seemed to be magic from by that wall and the snake came out of that statue, so there has to be at least a room behind there." 

"We do have all summer to explore Master." Severus told him.

"Yes, I am expecting Fawkes to bring Jules down here to see us." Harry informed him.

"Wait, you have Fawkes helping too, Master?" Severus asked.

"Yes, oh I didn't mention that did I? Sorry, yes Fawkes thinks the old goat has been barmy for a while and hasn't trusted him since he became the Headmaster. He only sticks around because he is one of the Guardians of Hogwarts. The Basilisk was one, but Fawkes thinks time and Tom destroyed its mind."

Severus thought for a few minutes and really didn't reply. He gave instructions on how to harvest the monster and they worked in silence for a while. It was a peaceful silence and Severus enjoyed this type of time when they would gather ingredients and work together. He was surprised by how knowledgeable his Master really was about potions. His Master was also willing to listen and learn from him. At first, he had been a bit afraid of them falling into their classroom personas that it didn't happen. They had spent many hours brewing together.

They spent most of the summer down in the Chamber finding the library with all sorts of books and Harry translated most of the potion books for Severus to use. Fawkes and Jules visited often, telling them what the old fool was doing. 

*****End Flashback******

"Master, I wonder why Jules or Fawkes didn't mention Slughorn?" Severus asked.

"Not sure, we can find out when we get there. When does he usually require staff to return to Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"Two weeks before students Master. Should I floo Minerva and ask?" 

"Yes, see if you can find out what happened too. Oh and Severus, I know where we can do the club without anyone finding out. It will be a surprise for when we return." 

"Yes, Master." Severus replied, grinning, he usually liked his Master's surprises and left the room.

_______________________________________________

Severus glanced around and had to grin. This had to be the weirdest group of people gathered. There were a lot of ex-Death Eaters, their kids, lots of the DA members and their parents, some were even muggles, Minerva and Filius in the room all waiting for Harry to begin the meeting.

"Well, it seems Dumbles has decided to change the plans again. He has someone named Horace Slughorn returning as the Potions Professor and made Severus our DADA Professor." Harry informed them.

"Slughorn? Is he nuts? That guy almost killed a few students when we were students back almost 20 years ago." Lucius informed them. "He had the worse record for teaching potions when it came to safety.

"Severus informed me of his record, we are going to have to find a way to make sure we keep everyone safe." Harry told them.

"Only way I can think of is if we make sure to match a skilled person with someone who doesn't have those types of skills, like Draco with Neville." Minerva stated.

Neville glanced over to Draco and Draco smiled. "We can do something like that. I am sure between Uncle Severus and us we can match everyone up. Between all of us, we will spread the word to make sure everyone is safe."

"Slughorn will go for it." Severus told them. "He will be too busy trying to court his "favorites" to pay attention to what we will be doing behind the scenes. Also, he isn't very bright, he isn't a potion master either, so I can use that to make sure I am the who does the school's potions and can watch the labs."

"You know I would like a year without some psycho Professor." Filius informed them. "It's getting very old having to worry about what some Professor might do to a student."

"Well, at least it won't be blood quills this year." Minerva stated. She and Filius had been furious when they learned about that and everything else the Headmaster had hidden from them. They knew about the Professors each year just not everything.

"Well, the plan is for us to return to the Castle tomorrow. That gives us two weeks before everyone else arrives. In that two weeks, I am going to be warding some special places for us. There will be at least three classrooms for us to meet in to do "homework" and "study". These will be areas where we all can meet without the rest of the school finding out. I will be providing you with the passwords as soon as I can make the rooms." Harry told them.

"Can you do that?" Crabbe Sr. asked.

"Yes, I do own Hogwarts, so she answers when I asked. I didn't know what it was before, now I do." Harry informed them.

Everyone smiled at what that meant. Luna spoke, "Brains and Red will be an issue, neither listen, they will bring trouble. They listen too much to the Bee."

"Brains and Red?" A few asked, confused by Luna speak as usual.

"Granger and Weasley." Severus informed them. "We will also need to watch the youngest Weasley, she is too interested in my Master."

"That is an understatement. She creeps me out and she isn't even after me." Draco stated.

"Yes, she is a stalker, almost as bad as Colin is with his camera." Neville said.

"Hey, I have relaxed on the stalking of Harry." Colin stated, his brother and parents just laughed.

"Only because we told you how many laws you were breaking." Muttered Pansy.

"Guys stop picking on him. He now knows." Millie stated, causing almost everyone to look at her. "What?" 

"Nothing I just think you shocked us all, you do speak." Dean laughed.

"Right back on track, we will keep up the club, everyone here is expected to attend, unless you get detention, if you do I am sure Severus will find a creative way to make sure you don't get another one." Harry warned.

"Who is going to keep you from getting them?" Minerva asked, giving Harry a little smirk.

"Well, since most of my detentions came from Severus, I think I am going to be fine." Harry smirked back at her. He knew she wouldn't be giving him any, as most of the time he would be working.

"Did you find out why the old goat didn't want us there early?" Harry asked her.

"He gave me some excuse saying he just forgot to mention it to you after he said something very weird. He said something about wards." Minerva told him.

"The Blood Wards. I bet he is trying to figure out how to transfer the stupid things to Hogwarts and hasn't been able to yet. Problem is, those wards at my relatives house aren't Blood Wards, those crashed a long time ago, the only wards there are his wards, and I don't think he likes that or understands why there aren't any Blood Wards there." Harry informed her.

"For Blood Wards to crash, there has to be no love, no sense of it being-" Filius stopped as he realized what that meant. "He didn't?"

"He did." Harry informed him.

Everyone else was a little slower in catching on to what Filius stated. Minerva was the first to explode. "I told him they were the worst sort of muggles. I will kill him." 

"Don't worry we are going to do something worse than death to him." Lucius stated. "We are going to destroy his name and power, the very things he holds dearly." Lucius was furious. He may not have originally liked Harry Potter, but every wizard and witch knew children were precious and you didn't abuse them.

Minerva glanced over to Lucius, with a feral grin on her face. "Yes, we are, aren't we?" Her voice carried her sense of justice being served.

"The Dark Wanker?" Harry asked, bringing them back around to why they were here and not his past.

"He is still trying to get everyone back, he still can't figure out how you changed the marks, actually I don't think he realizes it was you as of yet. The Carrow Twins are loyal to him and trying to get everyone back to following him. They have been hanging around a few places in Knockturn trying to recruit. It hasn't gone over well. There are a few places they are now unwelcome and that is saying something in Knockturn." Goyle Sr. stated.

Everyone assumed that Goyle and Crabbe were stupid, but as Harry and the others realized they were wearing wonderful masks. "They have been trying to get others to return, but so far no one has. Bella hasn't returned, which is surprising to me. There have been a few others with personality change too." Lucius told them.

"She hasn't? Is she still crazy?" Severus asked.

"No, that is the weird thing. She is almost back to normal. I mean she was always slightly off, but that craziness that was there is gone. She has a slight case of Black madness as always, but that craziness she has had for the past 20 years is gone." Narcissa told them.

Harry thought for a moment. "Lucius, can I see your mark?"

Lucius was one of the few that didn't have their marks in places where they would almost have to strip for it to be seen. He rolled up his right shirt sleeve and lifted his arm. It was on the underside of his right arm now. Harry looked at it for a few minutes, he began to speak to snake on the arm and everyone just listened in fascination. "Who else has one I can see?" Harry asked

Rookwood and Yaxley stood up. Rookwood's was on his left shin and Yaxley's was on his right shin. Harry looked at all three of them, spoke to each snake for a bit. Almost as if he was asking them questions, and summoned a book with a snap of his fingers, he read the book and went back to the mark. "I can't believe he did that."

"What?"

"There are a few different elements in each mark. One is, of course, his ability to control you somewhat, like the summoning. He can make you feel pain or not, he just selected to make you feel it. Now there are a few interesting parts of each of your marks. As you know I only transferred them in a general sense by changing incantation but I didn't change them in regards to ownership. Well, in looking at each of your marks, he added different things to them. The snakes told me the basics, but each basic is slightly different also. Lucius, he added to yours, your hatred of Muggles and Muggle-born and also that desire to serve him. When I transferred it, it severed some of those changes but of course, they are still there, it's just severed. It did change the need to serve him because the mark wasn't his anymore per say. Rookwood, he added yours the desire to work for the Ministry and tell him the secrets, like a truth serum almost, he also added that bit of blood lust you experienced before, again that changed as it was focused on him. Yaxley, same thing but also that craziness you experienced at times. There is also a small leaching rune in each that was severed, so I expect each of you has felt an increase in your magic."

The three of them looked at each other and everyone with marks began to wonder what else might have been done. "Can you remove them?"

"No, since they were willingly taken, all I can do is transfer them to me instead of the suspended state I created. If I transfer them it will severe all of those runes." Harry informed them.

"Transfer mine." Was suddenly heard throughout the room.

Harry looked surprised for a few second. "If I transfer them, I won't expect anything like him, it will remain the same as it is now. No calling me Master, no kissing my feet or kneeling crap."

"That is fine with me." Lucius stated, feeling relieved. He wanted the mark transferred and he knew Harry wasn't crazy, but that statement made him feel a lot better about transferring his mark. He knew Harry was powerful, but the thing that surprised Lucius was Harry was willing to listen to others, use their skills but there wasn't any type of punishment.

"I will work on Bella and the others, we will let this out via the usual sources and let it spread as normal." Narcissa stated, she began to plan some teas to let it out.

Harry nodded his agreement. "If you want me to transfer the bond, I will need to do it before we leave by tomorrow, or if you need time whenever we can meet as a group I will do either before or after the meetings."

"If you have time today, I would like it done." A few said.

"If you want it done today, stay behind and we can work on fixing everything." Harry informed them.

"Change of subject but back to one of the previous ones. How are we going to keep the club a secret?" Goyle Jr. asked.

"Everyone who is in it, is here, the Vow of Secrecy we all took will cover that." Draco informed him.

"So we aren't going to add anyone else from Hogwarts?" Goyle Jr. asked.

"I was thinking about that, as we have been talking. Granger and Weasley will be an issue unless they believe they are in a club for DADA. So why not have two? One for them and anyone else who wants to join, leave the name the same, and Albus will be happy, Granger, and Weasley will think they are still in with you, and we can have the second group on a different night. I am sure we can find something for Granger and Weasley to do on those nights." Minerva stated as she looked at Filius and Severus.

"I am sure we can find something for them to do on those nights, especially if we switch our club meetings to different nights but leave the original on the same night." Filius stated.

"Exactly." Minerva smiled.

"When do we want to meet and how?" Lucius asked.

"I actually have an answer already about that." Harry stated. "We will use something like the Order and DA use. Now the Order and the DA use coins that look like Galleons. I have made for us, these little pins, you can change them to whatever you want, whenever you want, you can change them daily if you want. They will change color for a general meeting with a time and date on the underside for you to read when you have a chance. At that time it will work as a port-key to the Chamber of Secrets. It is a two-way port-key so it will return you to where you left from or if you want to you can set a point of return. Now in an emergency, it will heat up a bit and change color. Get someplace fast and press the pin and say "Chamber", it will port you immediately to the Chamber. There will be a few different features on Minerva, Filius, Severus, Lucius, Augustus ( A/N: Rookwood, first name) and mine. All of us can call an urgent meeting if need be, or call select people. Now if someone happens to disappear, the pin will also act as a tracker if we can't summon you to us." Harry passed out the pins. "You don't need to wear them, but do make sure you have them all the time."

"These will be easy to cover up at school too." Draco said. "Will keep others from wondering why all of us have the same pins that way."

"Anything else before we break up?" Harry asked.

"I do have one question." Filius stated.

"Yes?"

"This club, is Severus to run it?" 

"Actually I was thinking the three of you would set up a schedule so that each of you to teach once a week, that way no one will know about it since only once every three weeks one of you disappears for a few hours. Severus can use gathering potions, Minerva school duties, and Filius I believe Goblin requirements will work for you?" 

Everyone smirked as Filius asked, "you already knew about the idea for the club." At Harry's grin, he continued "is there anything you haven't thought of ahead of time?"

"Yes, how to get him to pay for all those potion ingredients we collected and yet at the same time allow us to use them for our benefit." Harry informed them, causing everyone to let out a small laugh, even Severus.

Soon everyone was leaving except for those who wanted their marks transferred, which was every single ex-Death Eater. Harry had to take two Pepper-Up Potions, but everyone was finally done. They were alone now.

"Well, that was exhausting, I say we eat then bed. We have a long day tomorrow, as I don't think Dumbles will be happy to see us tomorrow." Harry informed him.

"You go and rest, I will make dinner and afterward a bath and bed, Master." Severus informed him. He looked at Harry. "You are right, he won't be happy, I wonder what else we can do to make him miserable tomorrow, Master?"

"Give him the bill?" Harry smirked as he watched Severus grin and leave the room.


	3. Returning to Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus and Harry join Minerva and Filius at Hogwarts, much to the displeasure of Dumbledore.

Severus was laying down in the compartment, with his head in his Master's lap, reading a book. His Master was currently playing with his hair as he was looking out the window, having put aside his research about an hour ago. "Master?"

Harry turned to look at Severus. "Yes?"

"What is wrong, Master?"

"Actually nothing, I am just thinking about which classrooms might be good to use and things like that. I have also been wondering what the old fool's face is going to look like when we arrive." 

Minerva snorted. "I can tell you he will be surprised. That old fool actually expects you two to obey him."

"What did you find out?" Filius asked from next to her, putting down the book he had been reading.

"He believes that Harry won't have fulfilled his end of the contract fully and he will be able to "guide" Harry in training Severus and use that has a way to gain control over both of you. Granger and both Weasleys have been given instructions to make sure you don't do well in your classes and to make sure you and Severus don't get along, by means of informing you on what Severus does wrong, well, what Albus views as being wrong." Minerva had been using her cat form to spy on them.

Harry turned and looked out the window and replied, "I wonder what how he is going to react to the fact that we will be sharing quarters?"

"I didn't tell him." Minerva grinned. She had already approved the changes and couldn't wait to watch the old fart's face.

Harry grinned at her. "I think it will be an interesting evening."

"He is going to try and dose you both with potions, I bet." Filius stated.

"Covered, I got us some very good protective gear, plus I have been working on my silent and wandless detection charms thanks to Severus."

Severus just gave a slight smirk and went back to his reading for a few minutes. His collar had every protection on it, not to mention the ring and silver bracelet he now wore. Severus closed the book and turned his head into his Master's stomach and decided to take a nap.

Minerva looked at him, grinned. "Are we sure he isn't a cat animagi?"

Harry and Filius let out a small little laugh, as Harry conjured a blanket and laid it over Severus. "Minerva, is there anything in the charter that can prevent him from trying to separate us?"

"No, I looked, however, there was something I did find interesting." She paused. "All those classes we wondered about that have been canceled over the last 60 years, he never got approval to cancel them, he just never hired Professors for them. So technically, they still exist."

"I wonder if Lucius could use that?" Harry muttered.

"I think so, it will keep Albus busy if he has to defend why he can't hire Professors for those courses or even if he tries to get them canceled. We have the board and the Wizengamot, so he would have a hard fight on his hand, either way, Lucius could drag it out." Minerva informed him.

Harry grinned, they knew a plan had formed in his mind. Minerva and Filius were instantly reminded why Harry had been able to get so many people to gather around him, former enemies were now working together, it was because Harry had that special something that you knew he would change things. "I need a list of all those courses."

Minerva stood up, pulled out a small pouch out of her robe pockets and begin to fish around in it, she produced a long piece of parchment. "I figured you might." She handed it to him.

Harry began to look down the list, his eyes widening in surprise at the classes that had been eliminated. "We go with every class on here that he can't say is dark. From the music to the law ones. Get the stats from every magic school and present them as evidence if he tries to stop them. I know he will, but if we drag out the facts long enough for each course, it should keep him busy all year, especially when we start to have the goblins release information. He will be fighting on those two fronts, I am sure the Dark Fart won't do much because he is lacking people right now, I am sure we can have Narcissa and Madam Zambini keep working on the rumor mill." Harry handed the list over to Filius who begun to read down the list of classes.

"I believe that my relatives can help with the stats gathering. They could use it has a way to get in contact with other schools and might be able to make a profit out of it." 

Harry nodded his agreement. Severus just smiled to himself. That was one thing he liked about his Master, he didn't micro-manage anyone and would give the best person for a job the chance to do it. He didn't keep everything close to the vest like the Dark Idiot or Dumblegoat did. He let his key people take control of things and didn't have a problem with that. He listened to other's ideas and actually made them work with his plans. He felt Harry's hand in his hair and he knew that his Master knew he was still awake. He was just lightly dozing. 

"I still want to give that miser our bill for our ingredients if he or Slughorn so much as touch one piece of a frog's liver or spleen." Harry muttered lowly, but not low enough that Minerva and Filius didn't catch it and snorted in amusement, knowing Harry will find a way to give that bill to Albus.

"Good luck with that." Minerva informed him. They spent the rest of the train ride just talking about some of the changes they wanted to make and how to make them without Albus, too meddlesome for his own good, finding out, especially about the classrooms Harry wanted to set up.

"Severus, we are almost there." Was whispered into his ear. Severus opened his eyes and realized he had fallen asleep. He turned his head to face his Master and stretched as much as he could in the limited space, only to find he could stretch out fully. "I extended the car." 

Severus stood up and pulled their trunks down, he got out their cloaks and handed his Master his. No one was speaking, they were all not really looking forward to seeing the old goat. Minerva and Filius were still not happy about what they learned and were trying hard not to show it. 

Harry smirked at them. "Really guys, remember we have to act our heart out this year or he will know you two are with me."

"Trust me, Laddie, I have been acting, if you could see how many ways I have thought about strangling that man with his own beard as I sit in on an Order meeting you would be surprised at how well my acting skills are." Minerva stated, her brogue coming out a little.

"I can imagine, personally, I thought of taking his beard and wrapping it around his neck and pulling both ends. I am also wondering if it might be a way to find out if the man actually does get oxygen to his brain." Harry retorted, earning a slight smirk from all of them.

"We will move to the front of the train, our trunks are there, so if he gets noisy enough to ask, the elves can tell him our trunks were on two different ends of the train." Filius informed them.

"I had wondered about that." 

"He might not ask them, but we figured but make sure just in case." Minerva informed him, as they begun to leave the compartment. 

"Master." Severus touched Harry's arm after they closed the door.

Harry looked at him and gave him a small smile. "Don't worry so much, we will be fine. He can't do a thing to us, he may try but there isn't anything he can do."

Severus nodded. He was glad he didn't have to voice that fear. 

______________________________________________________

Harry wished he had one of Colin's cameras when he saw the look on Dumbledore's face as they entered the Great Hall that night for dinner. It was truly a pensive moment. They had waited until they knew everyone would be in the Great Hall for dinner when they made their entrance. Severus had told him, that everyone was required to eat in the Great Hall on the first night back. They approached the head table and Severus took his seat as the DADA Professor, while Harry summoned one to sit next to Severus as Minerva moved her chair over to allow for room. "Good evening, everyone." Harry commented as he sat down.

"Mr. Potter, I wasn't expecting you." Minerva smiled at him.

"I am aware, however, since Severus had to come, I decided to join him." Harry grinned at her. "How was your summer?"

"It was very pleasant, I got to visit with my family. Yours?" 

"Interesting." 

"I wasn't aware you would be here Harry." Dumbledore said.

"Where did you think I would be?" The tone of his voice held steel. It was clear he wasn't happy with the Headmaster.

"I had believed you would be with your relatives." Dumbledore stated, he had actually expected that the boy would be and that he wouldn't have been able to train Severus, but by looking at Harry and Severus, he realized the boy had actually spent the summer with Severus. 

"Why would I be there? You know they hate me. I believe their words when I informed them that I wouldn't be there anymore were well, they were less than pleasant, but they basically said don't come back." 

Everyone looked up in surprise at Harry's words and Minerva slowly turned around to face Albus. "I warned you, I told you they were the worse sort of muggles, but you didn't believe me." She glared at him.

Dumbledore was even phased by their words. "Harry, you know they love you."

"Not that argument again. I have told you repeatedly what they have done to me and I won't be talking about it again, the only good news I can say about them is that I won't be seeing them ever again." Harry informed him.

"The wards."

"Crashed long ago." Harry turned towards Pomona Sprout. "Professor Sprout, I have brought some plants with me, I am wondering if you would mind if I used some space in one of the greenhouses?"

"No, that is fine dear, I can find you some space and if you need any help, please just ask." The stout Professor smiled at Harry.

"I will, thank you. They are some muggle herbs and flowers, I want to experiment with them." Harry informed her and soon they were engrossed in a discussion about plants. 

Severus watched everyone, but mostly he watched Dumbledore who was glaring at his blatant dismissal. He was wondering what the man would do. As most were almost finished their meal, he got his answer. "Harry I would like a word with you in my office."

z

"Sure, Professor McGonagall, Severus, and I am sure will be more than happy to come with us." Harry replied.

"Alone."

"No can do. I won't be alone with you ever." Harry quietly informed the man. "Either both of them join us or we won't be talking." 

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes and was about to demand the boy obey him when he caught sight of something in the boy's eyes and realized if he tried that the boy would make his life from now on very difficult. He was tempted to try it, but he didn't want to push the boy yet. He still needed him, he could either kill him or send him to Azkaban for punishment later, after he married him off to Ginny so that he could take back control over the boy's vaults. He still wasn't sure how he lost that control. The goblins wouldn't tell him anything.

Harry having caught that thought, found that interesting and filed it away. He would have Lucius take a look into his accounts and talk to his account manager, make sure that he didn't get control back. He wasn't worried about the contract. The man could try that route but it won't be happening. He wasn't his guardian, he knew Dumbledore didn't know that and wondered how much of a gasket he would blow if Harry let that slip out, he quickly dismissed it, he would save that for later.

"I am sure they have better things to do." Dumbledore replied, trying to think of any reason to object to them joining them.

Harry, however, spoke to Minerva. "Professor McGonagall, would you please join us in a meeting after dinner?"

Minerva turned around and faced Harry. "I am sure that can be arranged, Mr. Potter. What time?" She asked Dumbledore.

"An hour from now, if possible." Dumbledore tried to keep from glaring at Harry, at Minerva's nod he stood up and left the Hall.

"May I asked a question, Mr. Potter?" Aurora Sinistra put forth.

"Be my guest, I will try to answer it." Harry informed her.

"I am wondering why you referred to Professor Snape as Severus." 

Minerva coughed, she looked around and made sure Hagrid and Slughorn weren't around. "I believe before that is answered I want a promise from everyone here it goes no further."

Everyone quickly agreed and Minerva started by saying, "Professor Snape isn't Professor Snape any longer, his name is now Potter." After everyone got over their shock, Minerva and Harry explained what happened, leaving out the side information about what they were going to do about it. They just explained the contract and the reason why the contract happened. 

Poppy Pomfrey summed up everyone's feelings after they were done explaining by saying "I do hope you are going to make him pay."

Harry grinned. "Of course."

"I want in on it." Poppy Pomfrey replied quietly to Harry. 

"I don't know what you are planning on doing, but add me to it." Irma Pince surprised everyone with those words, but it got a reaction as the other Professors agreed and wanted to help Harry.

Minerva exchanged a silent look with Filius and Minerva added, "we are planning on ruining the man."

"Good." Professor Sprout stated, "I am not sure what I can do, but I will do what I can."

"The biggest thing is going to be making sure Harry and Severus are never alone with that man." Minerva told them. "Between his memory charms and compulsions who knows what he would do if they were to meet with him alone." She paused, "I had to get a purge done this summer because of those two things." 

Poppy sighed, "I have had to get a few of those done too, usually every summer." Letting that cat out of the bag.

Many of the staff looked surprised and wondered if they would need to see about getting them done when Severus finally spoke for the first time. "I can make a potion for clearing of your systems. We just have to make sure not to have them all done at the same time it does take a lot out of you. So on a weekend would be best."

Poppy leaned over to Harry and said, "I am serious when I said I want to help. I know you have something planned, add me to it. I will help you bury the man."

Harry slipped her a pin. "Have Minerva explain it to you." He quietly told her. Poppy nodded her understanding.

"We best get up to his office." Harry told them.

The three of them left the shocked staff behind with Filius. They knew Filius would tell them anything interesting.

"I gave Poppy a pin." Harry whispered to Minerva. She nodded her understanding as they made their way to the Headmaster's office. "Do the paintings and ghosts report to him?" He asked quietly.

"Yes." Minerva informed him.

"I wonder." Harry muttered. Severus and Minerva looked at him, they wondered what he was planning but didn't ask, they didn't want anyone to overhear them.

"Butterscotch." Minerva told the gargoyle.

"Butterscotch?" Severus asked, confused. While he may have grown up in with a muggle father, his family life wasn't pleasant and didn't include candy. He looked to Harry who was also clueless.

"Muggle hard candies." Minerva informed them, seeing the exchange. She thought it was amazing the change in Severus, he wasn't the same bitter man she knew from last year, that man would have never had asked nor would he looked to Harry for an answer.

"Senile." Harry informed Severus, causing Severus to give a small smile, which Minerva didn't miss, yes, they had changed a great deal. They dropped their masks when around each other and those they trusted, she felt lucky to be one of them.

"Lemon drop?" Dumblegoat asked.

They all answered, "no".

"I would like to know why you are here Harry." He didn't beat around the bush.

"Because Severus is here." Harry replied.

"You can't keep calling him Severus during the school year. He will be known as Professor Snape."

"No, Professor Potter." Harry informed him. "You didn't forget the name changed did you?"

"I didn't forget but I believe it is best if he remains as Professor Snape." Severus and Minerva just leaned back and prepared to watch this battle and knew Harry would win, he had the ace up the sleeve.

"No." Harry replied.

"Harry, it would be best for the moral of the school." 

"No, you mean it would be best for you."

"You don't want to make Severus become the rumor of the school."

"He has a lot of rumors about him, from vampire to Dungeon Bat." 

"We don't need to add to them."

"What you mean is that you don't want it to get out what happened and why it happened." Harry reminded him.

Dumbledore replied, "the contract states you can't mention it."

"No, actually it states I can't tell the Aurors or Madam Bones. If I broke the contract, we would know it." Harry informed him.

Dumbledore paused, he hadn't really read the contract, he had had Moody write it up, after all, the man was an Auror and paranoid to boot. He realized Harry was right, if he broke the contract they would know it, magic would let them know. "I am sure you mean well, but as the adult here, I believe it would be best"

"No." Harry cut him off. "Severus is Professor Potter. Oh, before I forget." Harry dug into his pocket and pulled out the bill. "Here is the bill for all of the potion ingredients for we gathered for the school year. Since you failed to let us know the change in position until last week, we had been gathering ingredients."

Dumbledore took the bill and looked at it. He froze at the figure. "This is very expensive."

"Actually we gave you a 10% discount, if you don't want the ingredients, no worries, I know we can use them. I am sure Professor Slughorn has ordered some or gathered his own."

Dumbledore looked down at the bill, he knew Horace hadn't done that. He had told Horace that Severus usually did all of that during the summer and he didn't have to worry about it. "Severus has always provided us with free ingredients."

"Yes, he has, too bad for you, I am in charge. Please make sure to pay that before the 30 days is up or you will be charged a late fee." Harry informed him. "Now, I believe it's time to see our quarters, Professor McGonagall?"

No one said a word for a few minutes, Severus and Minerva in kind of a stupor at what Harry had just done and Dumbledore at a loss as to what to do. Harry rose up and waited for everyone brains to catch up. 

"Yes, of course, Mr. Potter. Your new quarters are actually Severus' old ones, I just had them expanded to include two extra rooms for you."

"Thank you. Good night." Harry stated, and begin to leave the office, Severus finally caught up to what had happened, rose and began to follow Harry out. 

"Severus, I would like a word with you." Dumbledore finally recovered.

"Master?" Severus asked.

"No, he won't be meeting you alone." Harry informed Dumbledore.

"I don't know why you don't trust me." 

"You are joking right?"

Dumbledore swallowed that line of thought and tried something else. "I do need to speak to him about his position."

Harry walked over and sat down, Severus joined him. Minerva was really glad she came up to this meeting it was providing some great insights into Dumbledore and Harry. Harry had surprised her again with the bill. She knew he would figure out a way for the man to pay for the supplies, she just wasn't expecting it to be so funny.

"I need the teaching plan for the year, I also would like for the DA to continue, with Severus leading it."

"I have already made allowances for that to happened. I will give you my lesson plans tomorrow, as I didn't bring them with me to this meeting." Severus informed him.

All three gave an inward grin when they realized they caught the man again by surprise. He wasn't expecting Severus to know about the DA, or have the lesson plans already done, given that he only gave them a week's notice about the changes. They waited to see what Dumblejerk would come up with next. 

"I am sure Miss Granger will be happy to hear that, I know her and Mr. Weasley have expressed how well they did thanks to you, Harry." 

Harry had to stop himself from rolling his eyes but didn't answer. The office was getting filled with silence before Dumbleputz finally gave in. "I believe that is it for now. Good night." 

All three of them exited the office. At the bottom of the stairs, Harry put his hand on each of their arms and quickly cast a parsel Disillusionment Charm on them, and quickly cast a listening charm he invented. 

"He got you good." They heard one of the portraits tell the old fool.

"You don't know what you are talking about."

"You are upset because you just got your butt handed to you by a 16-year-old kid." The sorting hat added.

"I did not."

"Sure seems like that to us." Another portrait added.

"You might want to rethink your strategy of that boy being under your control, because even we can tell he isn't, and Severus isn't going to listen to a word you say." Another one said.

"This is for the greater good, that boy will kill Tom and I will stay in charge." Dumbledore stated as he stormed out of his office and to his quarters.

"That man needs to go." Phineas Black told the others, all three of them recognizing that man's voice.

"We agree, I believe it is time to let the heir know we support him. Hogwarts already does."

"Agreed."

Harry released the charms and they made their way to their new quarters with Minerva. After they entered, Harry cast the privacy wards up. "That was interesting and enlightening." 

"I agree, is there a way to talk to Phineas Black outside of the Headmaster's office?" Harry asked he knew they would be important if they had them on their side.

"He has a portrait at Headquarters and one I believe in the Slytherin common room." Minerva stated.

"He does, Master. I can take you there later." 

"Tomorrow, I think we should just relax for the rest of the night. Train travel is exhausting."

"Before I go, one thing I thought was interesting, he didn't read the contract." Minerva said. "I was surprised by that."

"I wasn't. He trusted Moody to make it because he is an Auror and expected him to make it a very tight contract, I bet tonight he is going to read it and wonder what I am going to do now." Harry grinned.

Minerva headed for the door. "I do believe Mr. Potter this will be a very interesting year. I will talk to Poppy as soon as I can also." She left them alone.

"You were quiet tonight." Harry looked at Severus has he sat down on the couch.

"I had a lot on my mind, Master."

"Care to tell me about it?"

"Actually you handled it all those questions tonight Master." Severus replied, sitting down next to Harry, Harry instead pulled Severus onto his lap. Severus leaned against him as Harry's arms wrapped around him. "I did like how you handled him, Master." Severus mumbled into Harry's neck.

"Severus, how about I put you to bed, and we read in bed for a while." Harry asked, and felt Severus nod his head. Casting a Featherlight Charm, Harry carried Severus into the bedroom as Severus pointed to the correct door. Harry laid Severus down on the bed after a spell pulled the covers back. Harry cast a quick spell that conjured up their pajama pants, another spell change their clothes. The elves had put their books on the end table and Harry gave Severus his book has Severus laid his head on his chest, they relaxed.


	4. Playing with your food is fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two weeks before the students return to Hogwarts.

The next morning, Severus headed for his office and began to set things up, while Harry began to explore the Castle. Harry was passing the library when he heard, "Mr. Potter may I have a few minutes of your time?" Mrs. Pince asked.

"Certainly Madam, how can I help you?" He never really talked to Mrs. Pince, except when he was getting books out.

"I want to help. I know you aren't going to let this slide, and I want to take the man down. He has done nothing but ruin this school and I am tired of seeing him send abused kids back." She told him.

Harry dug out a pin and quickly explained how it worked. "If I am not around, talk to Minerva or Filius."

"Thank you, Mr. Potter. I can't tell you how happy I am that someone is doing something about him." She dug around in her desk for a few minutes. "Here read this." Harry looked at the journal she gave him. "It's a list of every book he has taken out of the library, claiming it was dark. Some of them are just basic law and politics books. You will also find in there any event that has happened in this school, yours included. That man may have thought no one knew what he was doing, but I noticed it from your adventures from the Stone to the Blood Quill." 

Harry grinned at her. "Mrs. Pince I could kiss you right now." He watched her blush. "I mean it really, this will help a lot."

"I think you should be careful of Miss Granger and the Weasley kids. There is something off about how they act when you are around and when you aren't."

"I am aware, they are being paid by him." He watched her eyes flash in anger. 

"It will be shame Miss Granger's books will be out." Mrs. Pince told him and saw Harry smile at what she said. 

"It really will be." He leaned forward, "Have the Professor's slip their homework assignments so she can't find the books." Mrs. Pince nodded her head in agreement. "Well, Mrs. Pince I do hope you have a great day and thank you for providing me with something to read." Harry told her as Dumbledore come into the library.

"My pleasure as always Mr. Potter. Do remember it will be due in 2 weeks."

Harry grinned in agreement, as Dumbledore said, "Harry I was wondering if we could talk?"

"I will summon Professor McGonagall and Severus first." Harry told him and pulled out his wand to cast his Patronus to summon them.

"That won't be necessary." 

"I won't speak to you alone."

"I am aware of that, I am simply wanting to chat with you. Why don't we go and sit down over there, I am sure Mrs. Pince is able to watch us." He started to walk to some chairs. Harry tilted his head to the pin and Mrs. Pince got the idea and sent the message as Harry slowly walked towards Dumbledore.

"What would you like to talk about?" Harry asked calmly.

"I was reading the contract, it seems a bit open, and I would like to review it with you." Dumbledore told him. "I also want to give you a new contract to review. It will help to protect us all."

"No, I won't be signing anything. Now regarding a review of the current contract, I am sure the goblins would be happy to help you out on that, as I have left a few copies for them to keep safe." Harry informed him. 

Minerva entered the library. "There you are, Mr. Potter, I have been looking for you, you did promise to help me this afternoon."

"I did indeed Professor McGonagall. If you will excuse me Headmaster I do not want to break a promise given to such a fair lady." Harry said as he stood up, he held out his arm and Minerva took it. "I am sure we will see each other again Headmaster." He escorted Minerva out of the library giving Mrs. Pince a small smile of thanks.

They walked quietly to her office, "so what did he want?"

"Wants me to sign a new contract, claims to want to review the old one also. The contract he tried to hand me was loaded with hidden spells." Harry told her. He was thankful they had gotten protective jewelry out of their vaults.

"Do you know which kind?" 

"Yes, they showed up blue, which means he was trying to hide what was truly written on it." Harry told her. "I am so glad my grandfather was paranoid."

Minerva laughed. "You find the classrooms you want?"

"Yes, one by the dungeons, one of the third floor and one on the fifth, we also have the ROR to use too." He paused, "Mrs. Pince surprised me."

"She did?"

"Yes." He handed her the journal. "I gave her a pin, she kept track of everything for us."

Minerva flipped through the book and briefly read some of the entries, after a few minutes she glanced up. "This is wonderful, with these notes we can get information from other sources to back everything up." 

"Yes, I am going to read it, copy it for you, Filius, Lucius, and Augustus to take a look at, see what you can add to it." Harry told her. There is a knock on her door and she opened it.

"Filius, pleasant surprise, we just mentioned you." Harry told the man.

"Really?" They told him what just happened.

"Well, I have more news for you. After you left last night, everyone got to talking, I believe you will be approached by a number of people on staff. Pomona, Aurora, and Rolanda were very interested in talking to you. They broke off and started talking to Poppy, who I believe will be joining us."

"She already has a pin." Harry informed him. "I gave her one last night before we headed up to talk to Dumblerat."

"I did mention a few things to the Grey Lady after she said some ghosts and paintings wanted to talk to you." Filius informed them.

"That is fast, I just had the idea last night to talk to them." Harry told them.

"We move faster than people believe we can when we want, Mr. Potter." Bloody Baron said to them, coming through the wall, causing all of them to jump a bit. "I do apologize I didn't mean to startle you. Severus is looking for you when you have time Mr. Potter. The ghosts and paintings would be agreeable to meet with you and anyone else you select tonight in the ROR at 7?"

"That works fine, thank you, Baron, I will go and see Severus." Harry told him and they watched the Baron leave. "It appears the dear Headmaster isn't well liked."

"No, I don't believe he is." Filius stated. "I do hope we will be able to enjoy tormenting him some before Hogwarts boots him out."

"Do you think Hogwarts will do that?" Harry asked, worried they might not get to enjoy getting rid of the Headmaster themselves.

"I don't think so, if she was, she would have done it already. She knows what is happening and is going to allow us to do it." Minerva told him.

"Good, I want to make him pay for he has done." Harry informed her. He was hoping Hogwarts would allow them to keep their plan going forward, but he would understand if she did boot the man. Especially since he wasn't above using students to do his dirty work.

"Set up a meeting for tomorrow night, I will let everyone know what has been happening and if we worked out a deal with the ghosts and paintings. I will go and see Severus and help with whatever he needs me for." Harry waved at them as he left.

____________________________________________________________

Harry watched Severus as he worked at his desk. He leaned against the doorway and wondered how long before the man noticed him. "I know you are there, Master." Harry walked into the room.

"I was told you were looking for me?" 

"Yes, Master." Severus said as he tossed up privacy wards. "It seems, we have might have a spy problem here in the school."

"We do?" 

"Yes, Master, Phineas Black came to me this morning while I was in the common room, he said that Sybill Trelawney made an appearance in the Headmaster office last night. She was directed to work on getting into the confidence of most of the staff and find out if any of them support us."

"I think we can address that tomorrow night at our meeting, we will let those in the know, know about her." Harry told him, he leaned down and gave him a gentle kiss. "Did you take time to eat lunch?"

"Yes, I did Master. Kreacher brought it to me. I know if I didn't you would have been unhappy."

"I would have been, just because we are here, I don't want you to neglect your health."

"You will take care of yours, Master?" 

"You take care of me, it seems Severus." Running his fingers through Severus' hair. "Do we need to brew potions later?"

"Yes, Master, Poppy gave me a list. She doesn't trust Horace to brew them up to our standards."

"He won't from what I have heard about him." He paused "I found the classrooms, later, we will go and ward them."

"After dinner, Master?" 

"That will work. We do have a meeting at 7 in the ROR with the paintings and ghosts. How much longer will you be today?" 

"At least an hour or so, Master, do you want to go out into the forest before dinner?" 

"Yes, I want to talk to Bane and also get some ingredients if possible from the herd of unicorns by the far left area."

"I know the area, they are usually there before dinner." Severus paused leaned into Harry's touched "Master, what are you thinking about?"

Harry quickly told him what had happened and about the new contract the Headmaster had tried to get him to sign. "The jewelry worked."

"That is good, did you see what this new contract said, Master?" 

"No, I didn't want to touch it, something seemed off about it, I thought there might be a compulsion element to it." 

"I wouldn't be surprised." Severus continued leaning against Harry just enjoying his touched. 

"I need to go and get started on this journal, I will be in our quarters when you are done. Please be careful."

"I am always careful. I will be there soon, Master." Severus straightened out and gave him a small smile as he removed the wards and Harry left.


	5. A visit with Harry and Severus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is sort of an outtake, and some of the story too.

Severus arrived at their quarters, he made his way to where his Master was sitting on the couch, reading. He removed his robes, he just had on his black trousers and white shirt with a deep green vest on. He knelt, leaned into his Master's leg. "Rough day?" He got asked.

"No, Master, I think it's just being back here and having to put on the masks again, I am not used to it. Minerva went with me when I turned in my lesson plans."

"Good, and very true, you know no masks in here?" Severus knew he was being reminded.

"Yes, Master, I am aware of that. You made sure to teach me no masks with you." Severus told him, he felt his hands in his hair and moaned in pleasure. He thought back to the lessons regarding his masks. Each time Severus tried to hide behind a mask, he got pulled into his Master's lap and his Master would talk to him and together they would work though his emotions until Severus had let his guard down. His Master didn't let him hide. He knew his Master could see through his masks, he was the only one who had tried to do it. Not even Lily had done that, yes he didn't have as many masks with Lily but he had them. 

"Severus, we will stay here until we have to go to the ROR." His hair was ruffled as Severus tilted his head up to look at his Master. "Dinner by ourselves, and we can relax, we have a lot of work to do before everyone returns, but I think we can take a few hours and enjoy ourselves.

"Yes, Master." Severus smiled and got up and headed to the kitchenette in their quarters, he knew his Master could see him and decided to give his Master a good show.

"Keep that up and we will end up in bed." He heard, and he knew he wouldn't mind a bit of time in their bed, cuddling with his Master. Severus smiled to himself, he knew they haven't moved much beyond the kissing and cuddling stage and he wondered how his Master had gained his knowledge but he hadn't asked. He wanted to move forward and he wasn't sure how to tell him. He felt arms wrap around his waist. 

"Pet, I believe you're concerned about something."

"In a way, I am thinking about us, Master. How did you get so skilled?" He leaned into his arms.

"Skilled in training you?" 

"Yes, Master, you are barely over 16."

"I made a living during the summer using a certain Black family trait."

"You're a Metamorphmagus, Master." He was surprised, he wasn't expecting that.

"Yes, I used that skill to get away from my relatives, Dumbledore never knew because I broke his little gadgets in his office during my first year by accident. I found a certain club when I was just 12 and saw some of the people going into it, something about them attracted my attention. I copied their style and went in. I spent the first two summers learning from others, reading books and asking a lot of question, Betty and Curtis were very helpful. They helped me learn and helped to keep me safe. It was after my fourth-year, during the summer I started teaching at the club. They offer classes, as you know, and of course, people were always willing to submit. I got to watch and learn before I began to teach."

Severus turned in his arms and faced him. "When you said you got away from your relatives I never imagined that you would have done that, Master, can I see?" Severus watched as he turned into a taller, older blond hair man with blue eyes and a slight scar on his cheek.

"I saw you there, a few times, Master, you were never with anyone, but I heard you gave lessons." He started to think about the times he saw him at the club. He remembered seeing this man, and every time he was there, he saw him.

"Yes, I saw you there too, that is how I knew we would work."

"You could have told me." Severus snapped, his anger taking hold, breaking away from his Master. He wanted to know why he wasn't told. He was lied to, granted it wasn't an outright lie, but a lie by omission instead.

"Watch it Pet." Harry's voice was firm, a warning conveyed in the tone.

"No, you could have told me, I had the right to know." Severus stormed around the kitchenette. "I can't believe you, you had two months to tell me and you never did." 

"Severus." The warning was clearly in the tone, one that said for Severus to calm down and realize to whom he was speaking to. "If you want to talk about this we will, but you will remember your place."

"My place, ah yes, as your slave, bought and paid for, you are worse than both of them. When do you want me kissing the hem of your robe? How many lies have you told me? Were you even going to tell me?" He went to storm out of the kitchen only to find himself unable to move. 

"I am worse than both of them? I wanted to save you, but you know what, if you feel that way I will leave. You can stay here as these were your quarters originally. No one will know I am not here, that way Dumbledore can't do anything to you." Harry buried the hurt, he was used to be rejected, and wasn't surprised by Severus finally doing it. He thought it would only be a matter of time before Severus did what everyone else has done to him.

Severus slowly realized even in his anger, he was still being protected. Severus watched his Master leave the kitchenette and he was able to move again. He was still fuming and followed his Master to their bedroom. He watched him pack and Severus felt conflicted. He didn't want him to leave yet he was still mad that he wasn't told the truth. He began to have an internal debate with himself. Did he want to have his Master leave and be alone or did he want to find out more information? His Master never withheld information before. So why this? "Why didn't you tell me?" His tone was full of anger, he wanted answers.

"Watch it Severus."

"I am not going to do this farce if you can't be honest with me."

"FARCE! Yes, I see, I put you first, save your hide and work on making sure you don't get killed by both of those idiots, keep you from being in those classes as part of the agreement I made to keep you safe. Yes, it's all a farce, just to keep you safe, just to make sure you aren't going to be hunted down for something you would have been conned into doing. Destroying Tom and Albus is a farce." Severus saw his Master reign in his temper. "I will make sure neither one will get to you, but if you don't mind I have to finish packing and leave, I am sure there are some quarters I can find that no one will know I am staying there."

He watched for a few more minutes, thinking about the past two months and went over to his Master and laid his hands over his Master's hands, cupping his Master's hands in his. "You are right, we need to talk." He took the clothes out his Master's hands. He pulled him over to their bed and sat down. "I am sorry, Master, you are right, you are my Master, I accepted it and I know it's true. I am just hurt."

"Severus, I can understand that, but you can't expect me to spill forth everything, just like I haven't expected you to do so. We haven't had much time to really give each other our complete histories. I don't know everything about your background nor you mine."

Severus looked down for a few minutes "I know, you haven't, I" he paused "I am not sure exactly why I am upset, I am upset thinking of you being there and doing that at your age, I am angry at your relatives and Albus for making that necessary. I know you told me about what they were like. I had wanted to know where you learned about this lifestyle, and I was surprised at how skilled you have been at it, but I think I was more in shock about what you told me. I thought it was a lie by omission, but you're correct we haven't had much time. We spent most of it getting ready for our return to Hogwarts. Do you realize how much danger you could have been in? If you connected to the wrong person?"

"Sev, I never connected to anyone, yes, I learned, yes, I taught those classes but did you ever see me with anyone?"

Severus thought back and did a mental review. "I saw you talking with various people but no one was ever sitting with you like they belonged to you."

"Because there wasn't anyone. When I saw you there after my third year, I knew it was you. Didn't you wonder why no one would meet with you two years ago?"

"I did, I thought I had done something wrong, then I got busy with the Order and the return of the Dark Lord."

"The only thing you did wrong was that you got my attention and I don't think that was wrong. It was one of the reasons why I asked for you."

"You asked for me?" 

"Yes, I did. I wasn't going to allow Dumbs to do anything to you and I did what I had to do to prevent him from using you in his schemes."

Severus smiled at him. "I think that explains your actions during your fourth and fifth year, Master. I had wondered why you seemed to always be watching me." He lowed his head, "are you going to punish me?"

"No, do you remember I told you I would never punish you for something like this. You learned something that shocked you, scared you and made you doubt." Harry felt his own self-doubt disappear.

"I didn't mean it when I said you were worse than them, I was angry, Master. I know you aren't like either of them. I know you would never force me to do anything like they have." 

He felt himself pulled into his Master's arms and they were lying down on the bed. "Now before this, you were thinking of something else, what was it?"

"I was wondering if we could move forward, I wanted to see about going further, but I don't know about having intercourse, you know my experience with others, Master." His experience was with other Death Eaters when he first joined, and he didn't have any power. It would be an understatement to say it was less than pleasant experiences he had.

"Yes, which is why we have been going slow, but we can move forward, I did tell you this would be at your pace, have I ever broken my word to you?"

"No, you are the only one who hasn't Master, even in this regard." Severus snuggled into him. "How much time do we have before we need to be in the ROR?"

He watched his Master wave his hand and a clock appeared. "About four hours, we can go do dinner in the Great Hall."

"We can also just stay here, I can make sandwiches for us before we head to the ROR, Master." Severus grinned as a blanket is laid over them and he heard the alarm being set. He curled into his Master, lying his head on his chest. "I am sorry, Master."

"You're forgiven Severus, now let's just enjoy our time together." He was given a kiss on the top of his head.


	6. Ghosts, Portraits, Harry, Oh My

Harry, Severus with Minerva entered the Room of Requirement a few minutes before 7. As they were about to sit the room suddenly shifted, they looked and saw all the former Headmaster portraits. The ghosts slowly floated in. The ghosts were quiet, waiting for their spoke ghost.

The Bloody Baron, representing Slytherin, Sir Nicholas De Mimsy-Porpington, known as Nearly Headless Nick representing Gryffindor, the Fat Friar representing Hufflepuff and finally Helena Ravenclaw, known as the Grey Lady, representing Ravenclaw, stood in front of all the ghosts. 

"Mr. Potter, we need to be quick about this, we don't want the old man to notice all of us are gone out of our frames. We have selected Phineas Black as our spokesman for future meetings. We simply want that man out of here." Headmaster Dippet stated. "What do you want?"

"We were planning on speaking to Headmaster Black before the Baron asked us to meet with you. In answer to your question, we want Dumbledore out of here. We want him punished for his crimes. We want to see Hogwarts back to her former glory in regards to her magically standing. We want both of the self-titled Lords of Magic out." Harry told them.

They heard quiet talking of the portraits "Mr. Potter, we agree to help you achieve these goals." Headmaster Black stated. 

The Grey Lady smiled "we have also spoken, that is why we ask. We know we can't do much beyond provide information."

"Information is very important. Even the tiniest truth to a rumor can lead to the biggest downfall if done correctly." Harry informed them.

"Where do you plan on meeting?" Headmaster Black asked. Severus can tell Phineas is impressed by his Master. He exchanged glances with Minerva. She gave him a small nod, she knew they just gained an incredible network of valuable resources. 

"We plan on using the Chamber, I have provided everyone with pins" Harry held one up for them to see and explained the features of the pins. 

"Everyone who supports you will have one of these pins?" Headmaster Black asked.

"Yes, it can be changed to look different. When I designed them I didn't want something everyone would recognize as being a group pin. We have people in every house, in a variety of years, however, we have left out the younger years. I originally didn't want to involve students but as Severus and Minerva pointed out, the Screwball will use them and it's better that they have a choice."

They heard some of the portraits and ghosts talking among themselves. "Who do you suggest we speak to if we can't talk to you?" The Friar asked.

"In Hogwarts, Severus, Minerva, and Filius. Visitors to Hogwarts will include Lucius Malfoy and Augustus Rookwood, who are two of mine." Harry looked at them. "I do not want to appear rude, but can any of the ghosts leave Hogwarts?"

Sir Nicholas floated towards Harry, "We exist as ghosts because as wizards we left behind an imprint of ourselves upon the earth, we have an extraordinarily strong connection to the places we haunt. We can never leave these places unless we are released. When we died, we selected not to leave the earth, that choice limited where we are allowed to travel. We can't travel to any place beyond Hogwarts, we can see if we have portraits in other places."

"Thank you, Sir Nicholas." Harry said "may I get a list of portraits that have other locations besides Hogwarts, it would help. I know Headmaster Black you can visit my house in London."

"We can provide that, it will take some time, do you have someone we can use to make this list?" Headmaster Black asked. 

Harry looked at Minerva and Severus. "Mrs. Pince, Master?" Severus suggested. 

"She would be perfect, there is a frame behind her desk, so they can speak to her without anyone else hearing them." Minerva said.

"Can either of you talk to her either tonight or tomorrow? I am afraid if I go to the library again, he might think something is up." Harry asked them.

"I can do it. I need to get some books for a potion I am researching, Master." Severus answered.

"He is heading back to his office." The Fat Lady appeared in a frame with Headmistress Elizabeth Burke. "He hasn't noticed anything so far." She left as quickly as she came, surprising Harry with how fast she could move.

"If you bring a frame down into the Chamber, we can attend the meetings." Headmaster Black told them.

"I will bring one down tomorrow night. I know there are some in storage. He won't think anything of me being in the storage area if he sees me." Minerva remarked.

"He is almost to his office." Lord Draben appeared in Headmaster Swott frame. 

"We will talk to you tomorrow, don't want that fool to think anything strange is happening." Headmaster Black told them.

They watched as the room shifts, the portraits disappeared. "Harry, do not worry, you are doing what is required. We will help." Helena Ravenclaw told him. She gives him a slight smile. 

"I thank you, my Lady. I appreciate your kind words." Harry returned the smile.

"Good night Mr. Potter." The Bloody Baron said and the ghosts floated away.


	7. Chamber

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rрупа=Bulgarian for group

Minerva and Filius watched fascinated by the opening of the Chamber of Secrets in the school. "Slide? Stairs?" Harry asked as he closed his map. "We need to make more of these." 

"Master, I think we would rather the stairs, as much fun as you think the slide is, I am sure we would rather walk." Severus told him, he did enjoy the slide but didn't think it was proper for them as professors to slide down the tunnel.

"Slide could be fun. I can look into making more, I would need to study the map first." Filius told them, getting a small grin from Minerva. 

"Maybe next time?" Minerva suggested. 

~Stairs.~ Harry hissed and they watched the stairs appear. "Myrtle, you alright with standing guard for us?"

"Yes, Harry, I will let you know if the Bee comes floating by." Myrtle answered. 

At their puzzled looked Harry gave a slight laugh "she is good friends with Luna." He saw that explained everything and they started down the stairs after Severus pulled out his wand. "Lumos." They followed suit as they heard Harry hiss ~Close.~

"I can leave the map with you at night for you to study, I think it's going to take all of us to make copies of it." Harry told Filius. 

They began conjuring tables and chairs when they heard the arrival of everyone with their port-keys. "Harry, may I speak to you before the meeting?" Narcissa asked, she had her mask firmly in place but Harry can tell she is worried.

"Yes, Cissy." Harry looked around, "follow me, I know where we can talk quietly." He guided her over to the small library they found in their search of the Chamber. He turned and saw Lucius and joined Narcissa. "Lucius."

"Harry." Lucius conjured a chair for him to sit in as Narcissa and Harry took the two chairs in the room.

"Harry, we have been speaking to Bella, she wants to help. She is serious, she wasn't happy with learning about the mark and what it did."

"How stable is she?" 

"Surprising stable, don't get us wrong, she has always been off, but she isn't the blood-thirsty cracking witch we had to deal with for the past twenty years." Lucius assured him. "She is better than even what she was like during her Hogwarts years."

"I have been working with her, and I am finding I am seeing my real sister, not the one Tom turned her into. She is afraid of Tom and going back to him. We made her take a Vow before we told her anything and she took a few days to think it over, she asked a lot of good questions and now would like to talk to you." Narcissa looked at him, hoping he won't reject her sister without talking to her.

"I will gladly talk to her. Send a message to Draco, have him bring her tonight, now is fine, she can listen, since she is under a Vow, and I will speak to her afterward." Harry gave her a small smile, "Narcissa, I did promise to listen to all former Death Eaters, your sister is included in that."

"We were worried because of Sirius." Lucius explained their concern.

Harry thought about Sirius and his senseless death by Bellatrix during an Order mission for more information that Sirius was forced to take. It had taken a lot of inner dialogue to get over Sirius' senseless death. He really blamed Dumbledore for it. If the man had allowed Sirius some time away from that house, Sirius might not have spent time playing with Bella. Sirius might have been in a better mental state to go to the Ministry for Dumbledore.

"Sirius' death isn't her fault. Yes, she cast the spell, but Sirius was forced to go on a mission he didn't want. She was doing what she was told to do by Tom, just as Sirius was doing what he was told to do by the great fashion idiot. While it hurt, I do not hold her at fault."

"She does feel incredibly guilty for it." Narcissa told him.

"We will talk, I am sure the guilt will be there for a while, but we can work on it." Harry gave her another small smile. "Now, let's get Bella here and we can start the meeting. There are a few things we need to cover." Harry stood up and held out his hand to help Narcissa up.

"Thank you, Harry, for everything." Narcissa gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I will send the message." She left the room.

"Now Lucius what do you really think?" Harry asked the man.

"What Cissy said is true, I am just hoping Bella isn't looking for a new Master. Rod and Bas will follow her, they wanted to come and meet you for a while, but were worried about Bella."

"We will work on Bella, I believe she will want a new Master in one way but not the way she had in Tom. Time will heal her and I will be patient with her. Now send them a message to join us." 

Lucius smirked. "I have Greg Jr. waiting with them." He knew Harry would listen to them. He hadn't turned down anyone who honestly wanted to change and help.

Harry laughed "good, let's go and warn the others."

Harry started to head out when suddenly they heard a bunch of yelling "I am taking it Bella arrived with Draco."

Lucius shook his head, "lead me into battle, Harry."

They got to the meeting room and saw wands are drawn and people are yelling at everyone. "Stop." Harry quietly said. No one listened, he turned to Lucius giving the man a smirk "Expelliarmus Rрупа" and everyone's wand landed at his feet. "Now sit down." He told them, his voice unyielding. 

"Bellatrix is here." Was said by numerous people, as they obeyed the order.

"I am aware, I invited her to come. Draco was her way here. The Lestrange brothers are also on their way." As he said it they heard another pop and they turned and saw Greg Goyle Jr. with Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange.

"Bad timing?" Greg asked, seeing the looks on everyone's face.

Harry smiled "no, we are just settling a few difference, now everyone sit down and I will explain what is going on and if anyone ever pulls a wand and ignores me again, they will be dueling me since I will assume that you want to take charge."

"Harry, you can't let them join us." Dean Thomas said.

Harry looked at Neville and noticed he was quiet, he tilted his head to Minerva who knew what to do and moved next to Neville. "I am allowing them to join for the same reason we are all here. We want to fix the magical world, and they were under a psycho's control and I broke them free. If we can't accept people who had no choice in their actions than most of us wouldn't be here fighting against the two who have caused us to join forces."

"They enjoyed it." Neville said.

"No, Neville, we didn't. Those runes in our marks I think they made us like that. We weren't like that before taking our marks. We want to fix the magical world, just like you do. We were guilty of our actions, yes, but we also didn't have any control over our actions. I can't even come close to expressing how sorry we are for what happened to your parents and our involvement in it. There is nothing we can do to make up for what we did, however, we can stop Dumbledore and that man from ruining our world and making others suffer for their desire to rule." Bellatrix quietly spoke. "I am sincerely sorry."

Rodolphus looked at Neville "what my wife says is true. We would have never been able to do something like that without those runes in our marks. I believe Mr. Potter can look and verify the runes in our marks, which we would be grateful if you could also transfer them. Mr. Longbottom, we are very very sorry for our roles."

Rabastan inhaled deeply and let it out. "We don't expect forgiveness, just understanding, Mr. Longbottom. I know my role in it makes me sick. I know we served time in Azkaban and he broke us out, and we will go back once this is over but doesn't mean we don't feel any less guilty."

Neville looked at the three of them and turned to Harry "can you look in their marks?"

"Yes, Neville, I can. Do you have your marks where it can see them now?"

"Mine is above my hip, I can lift my shirt a bit for it to be seen." Rodolphus told him. 

"I have mine on the back of my calf." Bella said.

"Mine is a bit harder, it's on the upper back." Rabastan stated. 

"How about we go back into the other room, Minerva, Filius, Lucius, Narcissa, Neville, and Severus join me, and we will look at the runes now. While we are doing that, here is a list of new spells for us to learn. So collect your wands from the pile and start practicing. Augustus, Evan, Thorn, and Greg Sr. will aid you." 

They broke off and headed to the back room. They heard Augustus and Evan break people into groups as Thorn started explaining the first spell and Greg moved to help correct stances. "Bella we will do you first, let me get some books first."

"I will get them, Master." Severus said, he went to the bookcase and gathered the required books, Rodolphus and Rabastan started to remove their shirts.

"Bella, will you be comfortable standing or do you want to kneel on the chair?" Harry asked.

"I think it will be easier for you to read if I am kneeling on the chair." Bella moved to the chair and hiked up her skirt enough for her calf to be seen, and knelt on the chair.

Harry studied the mark for a few minutes before he began to hiss to the snake and after a brief conversation, he pulled away and looked surprised "Bella how haven't you killed yourself before now is amazing."

"What did the snake tell you?" Minerva asked.

"He added a lot of runes to Bella, he wanted someone to worship him like a God, he wanted her to be fanatically about him. The craziness was added in multiple layers of runes. He inlaid a great deal of insanity into her. Severus can you hand me that third book from the top." Severus handed him the required book and Harry flipped through it until he found the right page. He pointed to a combination of rune symbols "he used this combination with the other three above it."

Everyone, including Bella were looking at the symbols. "Insanity, madness, disablement of fear and fierce devotion." Neville read and looked at Bella with sadness in his eyes. "I don't know if I can say I forgive you, I need time for that, but I can't honestly blame you. I need time to understand and process this." He told her. 

"I understand and I don't know if you ever will, but trust me when I say I am honestly sorry." Bella had tears in her eyes. They can tell she is trying not to break down and cry.

Neville started crying and Bella pulled him into her arms and together they cried out their pain. No one said anything has they cried, leaving them alone. Rodolphus and Rabastan put their hands on Bella and Neville and end up getting pulled into their embrace. 

Minerva was reading the runes notes and said what they are all feeling, "I could kill Dumbledore."

That caused the former Death Eaters to look at her in confusion. Harry answered their unasked question, "we believe that Dumbles made Tom the way he is. He made multiple Horcruxes."

"Horcruxes, that would explain a lot." Rodolphus said. "They split the soul each time. How many do you think he has made?"

"Seven." Harry answered, "you know about Horcruxes?"

"Yes, our father was a student of Soul Magic, he had a huge collection of books on them. They are in our library." Rodolphus explained. "If he made seven, he is operating on slightly over one percent of his soul. Each split would cause him to descend into madness and that paranoia he has been displaying. "

"Can the pieces be returned?" Minerva asked.

"Yes, with a ritual." Rabastan answered. "It not a hard ritual, and we don't even need all the pieces just one. We need some other ingredients that are fairly easy to get. I bet Severus even has them in this potion cabinet."

Harry grinned "Rabastan, I think we are going to need you to find the ritual for us."

"I know where the book is, we just need a full moon to do it on." Rabastan told him.

"There is one in three days, we can get it set up by then." Rodolphus said. "Can we use this chamber, we will need to lay down runes and the moon symbols. We will need those ingredients from Severus if he has them. A few potions for afterward will be needed. A Soul Sealer Potion and at least a level 4 Healing Potion, and a Mind Cleanser."

"I can make those in less than a day. They aren't that hard to make, Master, the Soul Sealer is one we can make in less than an hour." Severus stated, he began to plan out how to make the potions and the timetable needed between gather, cutting and making the potions.

"Let's do it. If we can fix him, he would be a great help to us. He is not, however, going to have any control over anyone." Harry informed them. "I want this to be kept between us for now." He paused, "sorry, I believe we need Augustus, so I will be telling him, he might have more knowledge for us too."

"I agree, we don't need to get everyone in a panic until we know the results of the ritual." Minerva said.

"We also might want to ward the room. We don't know what power might be let loose." Filius informed them.

"I know he will want to talk to us after the ritual. He really did want to fix our world, not ruin it." Lucius said. "It's one of the reasons so many joined him."

"I agree." Narcissa said.

"I also agree, it was why I originally joined him, Master." 

"We will do the ritual, talk to him and see how it goes. Neville, are you fine with this?" Harry asked.

"Strangely enough I am, knowing it was some sick game Dumbledore has done makes it easier to understand than wondering how people could have done some of the things we have heard and seen." Neville said still wrapped in the Lestranges' arms.

"Do I still need to do Rod and Bas?" Harry asked. "I hope you don't mind the nicknames?"

"No, and they are fine. It's what we were called in Hogwarts." Rod answered him.

Minerva closed the book after marking the page with a piece of parchment. "Let's go inform the others."

Harry got the meeting started and informed everyone what they learned, most look to Neville to see how he was doing and he gave them all a smile as he said "I am fine. It is going to take some time to process everything, but knowing why makes a huge difference."

"Are you going to tell your grandmother?" Draco asked.

"The Dragon will aid us, she will be a force against the Bee in the purple ruling." Luna explained. "The nargles will be cleared from her."

"Thank you, Luna, I will talk to her tonight." Neville said.

"Either I am back to being crazy or I understood that." Bella said. 

Everyone looked at her and Luna gave her a gentle smile "you will be the one who will heal them." She told Bella.

Bella grinned "I would love that." She understood what Luna meant and welcomed the chance to treat Neville like a son and heal them both.

"Do we want to know what they are talking about?" Seamus asked.

"I think so." Pansy answered. "But if I am reading it correctly, Neville and his grandmother are going to get a new family and so are the Lestranges."

"I think you are reading it correctly." Mr. Thomas said. "I think we have all caught the Luna bug."

That caused numerous people to laugh. "Luna bug, that is a good name for it." Avery laughed. 

"Back to the meeting, since I am sure all of us have plans for later, it seems we have someone in Hogwarts who has been asked to spy on us."

"Let me guess, Sybill Trelawney." Augustus said.

"You are correct." Phineas Black said from his portrait. "She was in his office and he wants her to get close to everyone and find out information."

"I am not surprised." Poppy added "Harry, Professor Sinistra, Professor Hooch and Professor Sprout want to talk to you. They are very interested in helping. I told them you would speak to them as soon as you could."

"Thank you, Poppy." Harry picked up some books. "Irma also provided us with a huge resource. I have made copies of the journal she kept. I am giving the copies to some of you to help research the information we found, please get anyone else to help you if need be." Harry passed out the copies. "Irma, can you explain what is in the books?"

"Yes, Harry. I kept track of everything from the books he has banned to all the different adventures over the years and not just Harry's. You will see the list of students he has also returned to their homes knowing they were abused, they would be good resource to talk to also."

"May I get a list of those books he banned, so I can use them against him when we move to get the classes returned? Ironclaw got in touch with me, Filius, and they are going to start the research into the stats for us to use." Lucius took the book passed to him, he would start reading it tonight. 

"They have also started to do audits on Dumbledore's accounts." Filius informed them. Harry looked to Filius "I just found out today, they are going to use finding more information about that robbery a few years ago as an excuse." 

Harry nodded his head as they heard. "Certain Lord Malfoy." Irma respond to Lucius.

"Call me Lucius, I believe we are all informal here."

Irma tilted her head, in acknowledgment and continued "Phineas and the others portraits have started giving me a list of places they can visit. We still have a bit to go, but we have made good headway."

"Yes, and the portraits are checking beforehand to make sure they can still access those places, so it might take a bit longer than we original thought." Phineas added.

"That is fine. My goal is to slowly destroy the old fool and have him out by the end of the school year. I believe some articles and interviews will help with that. I believe we all can provide information on the various events that have happened here."

"I will spread the word to my house." Draco said.

"I can do mine." Luna told them.

"I will do the Puffs and help Luna with the claws." Justin Finch-Fletchley added.

"Great, I will take care of the Gryffindor with Neville." Harry stated "I want to get as many stories out as we can. Greg Jr. and Vincent Jr. set up a timetable and people check with them to make sure we keep to it."

"Harry, you sure you want us to do it?" Vincent asked.

"Yes, who would suspect the two of you as being in charge of that?" Harry said. "Talk to Lucius and Draco to make sure they line up with what Lucius is doing in the Wizengamot and with the Board."

Lucius nodded his acceptance as Draco added, "we can use that spell on parchment to keep it a secret."

"Just makes sure Brains doesn't see it. You know she will work on it until she solves the mystery." Harry warned. "Anything else?"

"Dumbledore was seen at the Ministry. I went to check on what he was looking at, it seems he was trying to figure out how to get into your vaults and get your contract destroyed." Augustus said.

"The goblins are aware of his trying to get into Harry's vaults, I had them upgrade the security." Lucius reassured everyone.

"Can he destroy the existing contract?" Harry looked at Severus, they exchange a worried glance.

"No, I think he was hoping to find a loophole. He might try using the Wizengamot once it is in session." Augustus stated.

"Too bad that won't work. I filed the change of seats but holding off on the release until the first day Hogwarts starts. The announcement will appear in the paper, in the back section." Harry gave them an evil grin. "Lucius will be the new Chief Warlock. I do hope I can see his face when he finds that out."

"What did you do?" Minerva asked.

"I will be sure to provide the memory of his face at the first official session when he is informed." Lucius gave everyone a genuine smile.

"I got a certain bug to agree not to write about it, in exchange for more interesting interviews and stories later." Harry informed them.

"The bug is eager to get rid of the Bee." Luna explained.

Thorfinn Rowle said "we also might have another interested party in helping us. Greyback. He approached me wondering why his mark feels different. He hasn't gone near the Dark Fart either."

"Interesting, what do we know about him besides the general rumors?" Harry asked.

"Not much." Thorfinn and several others said.

"Find out what you can, I am not just going to accept anyone's word based just on their mark. His history is what worries me."

"I agree." Augustus and Lucius added.

"I know he is very much against light wizards and wants more rights for werewolves, that is what the Dark Fart, I like that name Thorn, promised him, Master." Severus said. "I heard him on more than one occasion promising Greyback that."

"I have too." A few more add.

"Work on getting more out of him Thorn, and get as much as knowledge as we can. I have no problem with working with creatures, but I want to make sure we don't endanger our plans. Now anything else?'

"These new spells are we going to be working on them in the club?" Colin asked.

"Yes, some of them are ones I have created, some of them are ones others have created. I want us to know them and be able to use them." 

"May we learn how to create spells?" Dean asked.

"I am sure if you ask certain members they will help you. You need to learn Runes and get some language skills." Harry answered their question. He didn't mind if more learned, and was hoping more would want to learn how to create spells.

"I can create a club for it." Filius said, "we can say it's a Charm club, and I will help you learn."

"Thank you Filius." Harry responded. "I think that will be a good idea. Brains won't be interested in a Charms club, she thinks she is the best there is." Harry paused, "any more concerns, comments or ideas before we all head out?" Harry asked. No one said anything. "Good, next meeting will be next week, same day and time. If you have any questions or concerns use the normal channels."

After everyone but a few left, Harry turned to Augustus and filled him in on what they decided concerning the Dark Lord. "This ritual, will it return his whole soul?" Harry asked. "Rod and Bas will be finding the correct book but I want to know more."

"All of the pieces are out there, so it should." Augustus looked at Harry and Harry saw his worry. "Yes, yours too." 

"You're a Horcrux?" Lucius, Minerva, and Filius asked.

"Yes, Dumbledore doesn't think I know but I am one." Harry paused, "is there a way to stop one from being returned or one that was destroyed returned?"

"I think you need to explain the destroyed one first." Augustus said. Harry told him about his second-year and the diary, how it was destroyed. "You destroyed the diary but not his soul. The soul is actually out there, looking either for him or another soul piece to latch itself to."

Harry closed his eyes for a few seconds. "It found me. I was next to the diary when a black form left the diary and I closed my eyes in pain."

"What makes you think that?" Minerva asked.

"Before my second year, the most he could do was give me a headache. After my second year, when I saw him I felt pain. I didn't feel pain when he was teaching as Quirrell, even when he turned his head, that just gave me a headache. I didn't feel pain when he tried to attack me while he was trying to get the Stone. When I saw him even before the ritual to return him, I felt pain. I knew he was there before Wormtail messed up the ritual. After the ritual, it was worse."

"It was worse because he had a body again. The soul pieces were trying to connect to him. Let me cast a spell to see if we can find out how much of his soul is actually in your scar." Augustus told him.

Harry nodded his agreement and they all saw the blue glow of the spell as it read the pieces. Augustus pulled the parchment from his wand, giving it to Harry to read. "Great, I got both pieces, the diary was fifty percent of his soul, and I had the one and a half percent already."

"Are they two separate pieces?" Severus asked slightly confused by that news.

"Yes, which might help us. If I am thinking what Harry is thinking." Augustus told them.

"What is your idea, Harry?" Lucius asked.

"He is afraid of death, very afraid of it. If we give all of his soul pieces back but mine, it will make him feel secure, sane, and also will make him want to keep me alive." Harry explained.

"He is very possessive in nature." Lucius warned. 

"I am counting on it." Harry gave them a grin. "He is going to want to make sure I am safe. He also knows Dumbledore almost as well as Minerva, maybe in some areas even better."

"He most likely knows him better than I do. He has studied the man for years." Minerva said. "We were students of Dumbledore."

"Minerva can you pull his school records?"

"Who's?"

"Dumbledore. I want to check on something." Harry said.

"Master?" Severus asked.

"Yes, Severus?" 

"What are you now planning on doing, Master?"

"In Hogwarts: A History, it mentioned he grew up in Godric's Hollow, there is a historian who lives there, she was connected to the last Dark Lord, I want to see if they knew each other." Harry informed them. "We might need other history books also."

"Now to ask the question that needs to also be asked, how did Wormtail mess up the ritual?" Narcissa asked.

"He used snake's blood, it's what gave him his current look." Harry answered her.

"Can it be fixed? It would help him a lot, I know he doesn't like his current look." Narcissa said.

"Yes, Severus and I can create a potion that will work on fixing it. His soul being returned will also help." 

"Master are you thinking of the Restoration Potion?" Severus asked.

"Yes, but changing out the pixie wings for doxie wings instead." Harry told him.

Severus thought for a few minutes "that might be enough if we add some knotgrass with some fresh dill."

"I am sure you two will work it out." Minerva said, she realized quickly that the two of them could get lost in potions if they were allowed to. "Now are we sure we want to do this? A sane Dark Lord?"

"He will be saner. I will also need to make sure I take control over the man." Harry informed them. He glanced at Severus. He can see Severus got insure but the mask is in place. "Any concerns?"

"A few but nothing can be done until we find out about this ritual." Augustus replied.

"Lucius talk to Bas and Rod, we want to have this all set up and ready before the full moon."

"I will." Lucius said as he pulled out the port-key pin. 

"Good night all." Harry said, when it's just Minerva and Filius left with Severus and Harry, he turned to them and said, "can you port out, I want to speak to Severus." They quietly agreed. Harry took Severus and guided him to a chair. "Sit down, we need to talk."

"Nothing to talk about Master, you made yourself clear." Severus tried not to let the disappointment in his voice appear.

"No, I haven't, while I will take control of Tom if this ritual works and he wants to join us, you, however, will be my first priority. I am not getting rid of you or turning you away. You are mine Severus, and I don't want to doubt that for a second."

Severus looked at him, seeing the sincerity in his words. "He is better looking than I am, and I know he is stronger than I am."

"Severus, it takes a great deal of strength to give up control to someone else. It takes a knowledge of understanding your true needs and wants, and the strength of character to open up like that and give up so much control. You are who I picked, remember me always watching you? Do you think I would select someone ugly? Someone who wasn't worthy of me?"

Severus looked at him, studied him, after a few minutes a small smile appeared on his face. "No, you wouldn't, Master. I am not going to allow him to control me."

"I don't want you to. You are mine, and he will remember it." Harry tugged him into his arms. "Now, how about we go to our quarters, have a bath and relax."

"Bed with some cuddling and kissing? Maybe some more touching like you did last night, Master." Severus asked.

"Yes, that does sound like a good idea." Harry told him. "We have to walk there, as I need to tell Myrtle we are finished." He pulled out his map and they headed upstairs.


	8. Severus And The Dark Lord

Harry watched Severus as he walked around their quarters. He seemed to keep trying to find things to keep himself busy. "Sev, come here." Harry said. Severus turned and went to his Master and knelt down. "Want to tell me what is going on?"

"No, not really, Master." Severus answered, quietly keeping his head down. He didn't want to try to explain how he was feeling insecure and he knew it wasn't rational. He knew his Master wanted him.

"So the fact that Tom, being here and under you, isn't going to bother you?" Harry ran his hand through Severus' hair, gently guiding his away from his face.

"Under me, Master?" Severus looked up, wondering if he heard correctly.

"Yes. Severus, you are my first concern. Always my first concern. I need you to believe that. Always first, no one above you Severus." Harry ran his hand down the side of his face and bent down and kissed him, pulling him into his embrace.

"I submitted to him, he was my first master granted not the type I wanted but I did it anyway. I regretted following him, almost immediately. The same with Dumbledore. I haven't felt that with you Master." Severus mumbled into Harry's neck.

"I know but you also need to remember he wasn't himself and neither were you. Sev, also remember I selected you, I am taking control of him for our safety. I want you."

"I am not afraid of him taking you away from me, I am afraid he will try to take control of you and me, Master." Severus said. "I have seen him speaking, he can sway with words, he never lies but can still lead you to believe he will give you want he wants."

Harry pulled Severus, into a hug, "I am aware of that, I have been in his mind for a long time. You need to remember you belong to me because I selected you, I choose you, I wanted you, I still want you, that will not change. Tom is only going to be under my control if necessary, not because I want him. Do you understand?

Severus leaned into his Master's arms and thought deeply about his word before finally saying "yes, Master, I understand. I really do."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Rodolphus was drawing blood runes into the stone of the freshly cleaned ritual chamber. Bas was placing candles at each point.

Augustus, Lucius, Severus, and Harry were wearing ritual white robes, while Rod, Bas, Bella and Narcissa were dressed in red. They began to walk in the circle after the last rune was written and the last candle was in place. No one word was spoken, they walked seven times, at the apex of the circle they turned and walked seven times the other way, this time "soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle, soul of Tom Marvolo Riddle." was being chanted. They watched things appear in the circle until at the last round Tom himself appeared with Harry in the circle.

"Tom, we are offering you a choice. Your sanity, with most of your soul returned to you, or you may leave and face me on the battlefield." Harry told him. Tom looked around and saw his Horcruxes and his former followers. "I should tell you that I am also a Horcrux, which is what you are feeling now." 

Tom moved his wand over Harry's scar and looked down. "So I get back my sanity, but I still look like this." He asked. He didn't like his new form. He knew Wormtail messed up the ritual by using Nagini's blood.

"We will fix it, but this isn't just about returning your sanity. I plan on collaring you." Harry informed him. "You will be mine, and together we will get rid of Dumbledore and get the magical world back to what it should be."

"I would love to see you try." Tom sneered. 

"I was hoping you would say that." Harry smirked. At some signal, Augustus, Lucius, and Rodolphus began to chant the soul pieces went came out of the object and sought their original holder. Tom fell to the ground as each piece was returned. When they were all returned but the two pieces in Harry, Severus handed Tom a pain potion and a soul sealer. 

"There are two pieces of your soul missing, I am holding both pieces. I am going to have Augustus return the biggest piece to you." Harry explained to Tom, who was still laying on the ground.

Tom was still trying to recover when Harry laid down at the north end of the circle and Augustus begin the chant. Soon they watched the soul piece come out of Harry, linger over Harry and looked at Tom. Augustus quickly pulled his wand to see which piece it was. "It's the diary piece. I think its feels at home with Harry.

"Keep chanting." Narcissa told them. They kept chanting until finally, the piece moved from Harry and back into Tom. Severus rushed over and forced a soul sealer down Tom's throat, again.

"He will be unconscious for a few hours. Harry should wake up in a few minutes he is going to need a pain potion." Narcissa informed them as she ran her wand over them.

They left Tom in the circle with a blanket covering him, his head on a pillow, while they sit outside the circle. "Do you think he will join us?" Narcissa asked.

"It would be wonderful if he did. I think this is the best way to go. We are getting stuff done and driving Dumbledore crazy at them same time." Bas said.

"I think Harry with Tom under his control will make them impossible to beat." Rod stated. "Tom knows a lot of arcane magic. He can teach Harry the magic that Dumbledore has been keeping from him."

__________________________________________________________________________

"He is waking, go and get Harry." Augustus rose from his chair to check on Tom.

Tom didn't hear anything for a few minutes. Tom opened his eyes when he felt Harry standing by him. "Harry."

"Tom, welcome back to sanity."

"What happened?

"What always happens, Dumbledore."

"I think you are going to have to explain." Tom sat up and looked around at his old elite followers who now answered to Harry.

"Well, as you know Dumbledore arranged Slughorn to give you the book on Horcruxes. I found the book and there were a lot of compulsions on it. The biggest one was the divide your soul until you were insane. The next was the killing of muggles and another powerful one was the idea of making your followers. The compulsions were woven into different aspects of what he wanted you to do. The compulsions were inlaid into the Horcrux compulsion on the book." Harry explained. "The goblins have the book as evidence for when we want to use it."

"You said you are going to collar me."

"Yes."

"What makes you think it will be that easy?"

"Well you have two choices, you can leave here, but you won't be able to summon those you thought were your followers, you won't have any power in the wizarding world what so ever. Now with my collar, I am offering you protection from what you have done because of the Horcruxes. I am offering you a way to help form our new world and the best reason is I am offering you a way to take out Dumbledore."

Tom sighed, "what does this collar mean?"

"It means exactly that Tom, you will belong to be me fully. I will train you to obey and I will punish you when you misbehave." Harry said, he leaned forward and quietly said, "I will promise to take care of you Tom, no one will forget you, you will never be alone."

Tom looked at Harry and wondered how he saw that and realized Harry probably knew him better than anyone else. "I don't want to be a slave to everyone."

"No, just be me. You and Severus belong to me, you won't be above Severus, you will respect him. No one is going to treat either of you with anything less than respect."

Tom looked at the collar and to Harry. He held out his hand and Harry placed the collar in his hand, it was black leather and soft. There were some hooks, one he knew for a tag, another for a leash he thought or even some type of restraint. "Do you promise not to do things I won't like."

"Yes, Tom I do."

~I will do it, on a few conditions, one of them is that I don't be treated like a slave by everyone, second, I want to be involved in the daily activity of this group and three I only answer to you, no one else will punish me or try to control me.~

~I promise you will never be treated by a slave by anyone except me. You will never be treated as one except when you need a reminder of who owns you, and only I will do it. I want you to be involved in this group, I want you to help us take down Dumbledore and you will only answer to me, I will punish you, I will control you when needed Tom, you won't be free. I will also keep you safe, protected and make sure all your needs are taken care of. You will also respect Severus. He belongs to me fully, you can't demean him, order him around or try to take advantage of him.~

~So mote it be.~

~So mote it be.~ Harry said, taking the collar and placing it around Tom's neck. "You will be staying at Hogwarts with us." Harry paused, "your stuff will be brought here. We will make sure Dumbledore can't touch you. So welcome home Tom."

Tom smiled.


	9. Tom, Sev and Harry face Dumbledore

Tom followed Severus and Harry up to Myrtle's bathroom. Severus hadn't spoken to him as of yet, but he noticed Severus rarely spoke unless he had to. Severus stayed close to Harry. Tom realized Severus truly belonged to Harry. He wondered briefly if Harry was going to make sure he was as well trained as Severus appeared to be.

He looked at the portraits as they walked, he wanted to ask why they weren't worried about them running to Dumbledore and telling him he was here. "They are with us." Severus told him quietly. 

Tom relaxed and started to think about how to make himself unrecognizable to Dumbledore. He knew he had some jewelry in one of his vaults that would help. He could also charm some if he needed to. He might need some of his books. He wasn't sure if Harry would let him get them or not. 

He glanced up as one of the portraits had a new face that appeared in the frame and said "Harry, he just got an owl from his friend Doge, they are going to submit the request for your contract to be released and for him to take your seats tomorrow. He is going to call a secret session to get it done." Phineas Black told him.

"Can someone let Lucius' know?" Harry asked.

"I am not sure. We are still working on where we have alternate portraits." Phineas said.

"Let Minerva and Filius know, tell them to get word to Lucius." Harry replied. "Tell Lucius to get everyone there and ready in case Dumbledore does pull a secret session off. We have enough people to stop anything he tries. Have him speak to Ironclaw, have the goblins make sure the contract can't be broken and he can't take my seats. Tom's should also be assigned to me now." 

"I will let them know." Phineas stated. "Harry, Minerva, and Filius have come up with a cover for Tom. He is going to be assistant Professor for Severus and them." 

"Do they have the name?"

"Yes, Minerva said you would enjoy it. She said Corvinus Gaunt Peverell."

Tom snorted as Severus said. "he would love that, he is fixed on the Deathly Hollows."

"Really that fairy tale?" Tom asked.

"Yes, the Gaunt ring is one and my cloak is another, well he believes it so. He doesn't realize they only work for those in the Peverell family like Tom and I are." Harry stated.

"You mean Corvinus." Tom stated.

"Let's get Tom's new identity finished. Phineas, we will be in our quarters if anyone needs us." Harry stated.

"Will pass on your message. Good night Harry, Severus, Tom." Phineas stated. 

"Night." They replied.

Tom went back to thinking about how to work a glamour that Dumbledore wouldn't be able to break. He wondered if a parseltongue one would work with a jewelry or even with a strong charm. He would have to talk to Filius about it. He heard Harry give the password to his new quarters and followed his new owner. 

Harry sat down and Severus quickly knelt next to Harry. Tom knelt in front of Harry. "Very good, Tom. Severus will help you learn if you want his help. He is not in charge of you. As part of our deal, no one but me will be in charge of you. Severus, as part of our deal, Tom knows he is not in charge of you. He knows he will be mine. He knows he has to respect you. Now we need to work on some permanent glamours on Tom."

"I have some ideas." Tom stated.

"One warning, say it correctly." Harry stated.

"Sorry Master, I have some ideas, Master." Tom spoke again at Harry's nod he continued "I can do a parsel spell with some charms on jewelry, I might have some in my vault. My other idea is just sticking with just some charmed jewelry. I know Dumbledore can break most glamours with those glasses he wears."

"Aren't they a dark artifact?" Severus asked.

"They are. That is why he never gives away anyone wearing a glamour. He relies on Mad-Eye's magical eye to reveal any glamours." Tom answered him.

"What is the best way?" Harry asked.

"Best way would be a permanent change Master, it can be done with some rituals. If I do some charms now, set them in a ring or something, after a week we can set them permanently with a simple blood ritual. It doesn't take long but the Ministry banned it because of the blood used in it." Tom explained.

"Do we need the week before we can do it?" Harry asked.

"Yes Master. The body needs time to get used to it." Tom answered.

Harry thought for a few minutes, he summoned some books to him. He flipped through one, closed it, picked up the next one, flipping through it, he handed it to Tom. "Will this spell help?"

Tom took the book and read through it, he passed it to Severus. "If we combine it with a sealing potion, we can use it, Master."

Severus put the book down. "He is correct, Master. A sealing potion will do it. I can make it tomorrow. If I start it tonight, I would need to spend the night working on it, it would be breaking one of your rules."

"Rules?" Tom asked he got a quick smack across his face. "Sorry, Master, rules?"

"Yes, rules, one of them is a reasonable bed time. Another one is three meals a day. I will explain each of them tomorrow. Tonight, we will set you up in your room." Harry said. "Tomorrow you will stay in here until Severus can get the sealing potion done. You can charm some jewelry for extra protection." 

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The next day Tom helped Severus make the potion. When they had to wait with the potion for the next stage, they charmed some jewelry for Tom to wear. "Tom."

"Corvinus, we need to get used to the name. I know I certainly do." Tom said.

"Corvinus, do you think these will work with Dumbledore's glasses?" Severus asked.

"I am hoping. I am thinking I will add a parseltongue spell on top of it. Our Master might want to change it."

"No, he will go for it. Our Master is about our safety first." Severus said. He put the book down he was reviewing regarding glamour charms. "Are you really fine with all of this?"

Tom looked at Severus "I thought about it a lot last night. I wasn't sure exactly how I would handle it, but I realized I needed it. He is my Horcrux, he stabilized me, which needed to be done. I am not sure how well I am going to take his training, but I know I will learn." 

"You will. He is strict, but he is not mean. I am not sure how to say this, but I am just going to say it. He is my Master, my true Master. Dumbledore sold me to him, in exchange for having our Master not go to the Ministry and telling them what Dumbledore had done." 

"Dumbledore wrote up up a contract with that many loop-holes?" Tom was shocked. He began to think of all the different ways to leak information out without going to the Ministry.

"No, Mad-Eye did it, he wrote up exactly what Dumbles said. Dumbles also set it up that I needed to be trained in two months. The contract was filled with all kinds of loop-holes for our Master to use, including the ones that is now going to protect you." Severus answered.

Tom let a slight grin appear on his face. "He is a surprise isn't he?"

"Yes, Master is. I know Dumbledore is wondering what he has done exactly. He has already tried to get him to revamp the original contract and you heard what he is going to try next." Severus answered. "I need to go and add some moonstone dust into the potion." Severus got up and started to walk to his lab, at the doorway he said to Tom "don't think you will be able to pretend to be trained, I did that and I couldn't sit down for three days."

"Severus, I intended to honor our deal."

"I am seeing that." Severus answered and exited the room.

While they waited, Harry had taken care of things in Hogwarts, trying to keep himself busy while waiting for Lucius to let them know the results of the Wizengamot. Harry had dinner with them in their quarters. Tom was kneeling on the other side of Harry as Severus was leaning against Harry's leg, reading some of his research on a new potion he was going to work on. They didn't move when the floo came to live and Lucius stepped out. 

Lucius grinned at them as he sat down. "It took a while. We spent most of the day listening to his babbling. However, he got shot down each time. I would have been here sooner but he spent hours trying to get the Wizengamot to rescind just the bonding contract. Doge backed him up like we knew he would. Everyone was afraid of what would happen if the contract was rescinded. He even used your age in the bonding compared to Severus'."

Harry laughed at that. "He actually went that route."

"Yes, and it got worse. After two hours of no one supporting him, he changed tactics. He wanted to get control over you, again going with your age and your responsibilities in our world. When that didn't work, he went with how famous you are and needed additional guidance, help controlling your estate. How you had no estate training. Someone, I think it was Lady Longbottom, pointed out that you had Severus to help. He had someone read the contract, despite numerous protest. The reading took three hours between questions and explanations of why he added certain things in the contract. He had a very hard time explaining the clauses and reasons for them. He did some fast talking but no one believed him. Madam Bones and Fudge want to speak to Ironclaw concerning the contract."

"Three hours on the contract reading?" Harry asked.

"Yes, another almost two hours on him trying to get your seats assigned to him based off of that contract. No one would give him an inch and he wasn't going to take no for an answer." Lucius said. "We took thirty minutes for lunch in which he and Doge tried to get some of our people to agree with them. I believe you have a few more followers. Some of them seemed very unhappy with Dumbledore for the contract alone, their opinion dropped further over the issues with the seats. Fudge shut him up, finally, by calling for a vote on the issues so we could head home."

"How did he take you and the others being there for the closed session?" Harry asked.

"He was furious. We already were sitting in our seats when he came in with his cronies. None of them were expecting that. Dumbledore spent a good ten minutes trying to act like he wasn't calling a special session. I think he is going to be questioning his friends on who leaked out the information."

"That would be interesting to see. Did he call Ironclaw?" Harry asked.

"No, Madam Bones did. She had him explain that while the contract had many loop-holes it was still a legal contract. Nothing was hidden nor was there any potions or spells used in the creating or signing of the contract." Lucius answered.

"What reason did he give for having the contract rescinded?" Severus asked.

"That was the interesting and also slightly weird part. He was insistent Harry was a minor, despite Ironclaw informing the Wizengamot of your adult status. He was really pushing your age on everything. When Ironclaw stated it was his own fault for allowing you to stay in the tournament because he was your magical guardian, no one was willing to listen after that. Even some of his own people tried to stop the contract reading. If it wasn't almost seven hours of his babbling I would say let me show you the memory. I think some of us even fell asleep during his rant about estate planning."

"You know that might be a good way to get those classes he banned returned." Tom told them.

Harry exchanged a quick look with Lucius. "Already submitted the requests to the Board. I wrote them up last week."

"See also about getting some of the books he has banned returned." Harry told Lucius.

"Minerva and Filius started a list for me." Lucius responded. "Irma had a list in the notes she kept. Every book he has banned was in it. Some we don't want here, but should be kept in safe place like the ones on soul magic he removed."

"I agree with Lucius, it's how I learned about Horcruxes, Slughorn gave me the book from the library." Tom stated, he felt a light smack on the back of his head. "Sorry, Master. I forgot."

"I expect that." Harry told him. "Doesn't mean I won't correct it in front of others if they are in the know as it were."

"Yes, Master." Tom replied. He glanced to Severus who was still just leaning into their Master. He looked at Lucius and noticed that neither of the men had a smirk or anything that reflected their pleasure in seeing him reminded of his new place.

"Lucius can we get him into any kind of trouble about these classes?" Harry asked.

"Only with the newspaper. He didn't do anything illegal as Hogwarts is a private institution and allows the Headmaster to control the books and classes. The Board can now override some of the situations like the classes being added and removed if they know about them. I would say have Rita do an article for us about the books and classes and the empty classrooms versus the high tuition. Have her compare it to other magical schools."

"Do it." Harry commanded.

"I will have Barty speak to her, she seems to enjoy him." Tom told Lucius.

"Anything that can't wait until our next meeting?" Harry asked.

"No, everyone has been making sure to keep those in charge well informed. Augustus and Narcissa have been working with Minerva and Poppy about the abuse issues and gathering all the information. I will have it ready for the opening of the Wizengamot."

"Good, make sure to have backup issues just in case he decides to make an appearance the first day. He might not stay at Hogwarts despite it being the first day back for the students." Harry told Lucius.

"I do, have some of the Bills we want to get passed ready to present if he does show, I figure he might show in the morning, but won't stay for the second session after lunch." Lucius explained.

"Great. Do you need me to do anything?" Harry asked.

"No, I will be speaking to Ironclaw tomorrow, make sure your vaults are protected and the accounts are in order. I have some minor investments to move some of your funds too. Some muggle shares." Lucius explained.

"Sounds good. If he tries anything we can always say I have an investment manager." Harry smiled at Lucius, who smirked.

"Well, I need to get home. Narcissa and I have to attend Fudge's dinner party tonight. I will let you know if I learn anything interesting." 

"Thank you, Lucius. I appreciate all that you are doing." Harry told the man.

"I am glad to be able to assist. Especially if we get rid of that old fool." Lucius stood up and headed back to the floo."Oh, Ironclaw wants to attend the next meeting. He has an idea he wants to present to you. He wouldn't tell me much but said he would owl you."

Harry nodded his head in agreement and Lucius stepped into the floo. "Let's get the glamours done so we can go to bed."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry and Severus waited for Tom to open his eyes. They already saw some of the changes in Tom that the ring and charms would do to him. Next week they would be permanent unless they did another ritual to remove them. He had almost black hair, down to his shoulders, with slight curling. He skin was slightly darker, he looked like he spent hours out in the sun. His face was softer and a bit rounder. His nose was straight, his lips were fuller and his cheekbones were higher. When he opened his eyes they saw sky blues eyes staring at them. "He will never know it's you."

"I agree." Severus added. Severus handed the sealing potion to Tom. 

"Well the test will be tomorrow. Everyone will be ready in case we need them. Irma will be watching Sybill." Harry told them.

"Master, did he notice we weren't at meals?" Severus asked.

"He did, but Poppy said she asked you for a lot of potions so we were working on them." Harry answered. "He asked a lot of questions about Corvinus, we didn't reveal your middle name. He just knows it's Corvinus Peverell."

"What am I working towards Master?" Tom asked.

"A Masters in Potions." Harry answered. "You already have one in Transfiguration and in Charms. So he is thinking of giving you classes to teach. Minerva stopped him from writing up an official schedule."

"How are you going to handle being in our classes, Master?" Tom asked. 

"Treat me as any other student. I am not sure if he will release Severus status or not. He certainly didn't want it released to the staff." Harry answered.

"I am not sure either, Master, maybe tomorrow will let us get a feeling for what he is planning." Severus told them.

"Protection gear is next. We don't want to take a chance of him dosing you with some potions." Harry smiled. "We seemed to have become very good in the protection area."

Severus gave his Master a slight nudge as he smiled.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Tom was nervous, not about facing Dumbledore, he knew they could handle the man. He was nervous about making sure he didn't blow their plan up. Harry had clearly worked hard to get everything in place, he had the support of the light and dark factions and Tom didn't want to blow it up in his face. 

"Relax, he won't know." Severus told him as they walked towards the Great Hall. The students weren't going to be returning for another week and they had plenty of time to get Tom used to his new looks and position.

"Do you think Slughorn might give me away?" Tom quietly asked Severus. 

"No, Slughorn is to focused on our Master." Severus answered. "Sit on the other side of Harry at the table. Dumbledore might try to get our Master to sit next to him, but he usually sits next to my usual seat."

Harry stopped at the doors to the Great Hall and waited for them. "Relax, everything will be fine, Tom. We won't let anything happen to you."

"It's not that. I am more worried about ruining your plans, Master. If he realizes who I am, your plans get ruined." Tom told him. Severus had already explained about being honest with their Master.

"He won't. Those glamours are good, you are going to have to teach me them." Harry responded. "Harry when not in private."

"Yes Harry." Tom grinned as Harry opened the door. They didn't say a word as they walked towards the Head Table, everyone was already there, including Sybill who was flapping her gums at Filius about omens showing how his path was clear.

Tom, Severus and Harry took their seats and greet everyone. Harry noticed everyone relax a bit as they acknowledged that Dumbledore didn't recognize Tom.

"You must be Corvinus Peverell. Welcome." Dumbledore stated.

"Thank you. I am looking forward to working with Severus." Tom responded. 

"I am sure you will enjoy your time here with us." Dumbledore responded. "Tell me where did you go to school?"

"I studied at home. My parents enjoyed traveling." Tom answered. 

"How did you select Severus for your potion master?"

"How would I not? He is still the youngest one to attain his Mastery in Potions. He has a Mastery in Defense. Why wouldn't I have selected to approach him? Harry was kind enough to set up a contract for us." Tom answered. 

"So Harry arranged it?" Dumbledore asked.

"No, I spoke to Severus. Severus agreed and we spoke to Harry who arranged the contract." Tom looked at Minerva.

"Since Corvinus signed a contract with Severus, Severus and I agreed to give him some experience with teaching and it would allow him to gain experience for his teacher's certificate." Minerva explained. "Since he is willing to work for just room and board, it was an easy contract to agree too."

"Very good." Dumbledore replied but Harry and Minerva could see he wasn't thrilled about the situation but there was nothing he could do, as an apprentice was allowed by a person with a Masters and the Master determined how the apprentice would work while obtaining his own Masters. "How are you going it make it work with Severus' status?"

"I believe that is why Harry had to arrange the contract." Minerva stated. "Corvinus was made aware of it and Harry allowed Severus to set the terms."

"He allowed Severus to set the terms. That violates our contract." Dumbledore looked gleeful.

"No, we had Ironclaw review the contract. Harry allowed Severus to set the terms but Harry agreed to the terms and the contract is between myself and Harry." Tom answered. "Harry was there for the setting of the terms and he is the one who suggested I assist in the other classes."

"I agreed to allow Corvinus to teach after I spoke with Harry and Corvinus, with Severus in attendance." Filius stated.

"I also agreed under the same conditions." Minerva stated.

Harry hid the grin he wanted to give as Dumbledore was stopped again. There was nothing he could do, as Harry was at each agreement and signed the contract. They made it over the hurdle.


	10. Issues

Harry entered their quarters to find Severus and Tom yelling at each other. "He is my master."

"He is mine too." Tom yelled back. "I have the right to spend time with him." 

Harry knew they hadn't seen or heard him enter. "What is going on?" Harry asked. 

Tom and Severus paled at those words and turned and faced Harry. They quickly knelt. "Master." 

"Do not make me repeat myself." Harry warned them. He knew he had been spending a lot of time with Tom during the day but he also made sure to spend quality time with Severus. He was hoping they weren't feeling jealous of each other. 

"Master, we had a problem with the idiot today." Severus glared at Tom. 

Harry didn't like that look, Severus hadn't glared over a month. "What problem, Severus and don't make me drag it out of you." Harry asked. Tom hadn't raised his head as of yet, he knew Tom was thinking if this was something he would get punished for. 

"He called a staff meeting and ordered all of us to make sure you were grouped with Granger and Weasley in any practicals. He demanded that we make sure you three are grouped together, Master. He kept us behind after the meeting. He said that I either treat you like I did the previous years or we will be fired for breaking our contracts." Severus answered.

"That doesn't explain what I walked in on." Harry said. He knew Severus was hiding something, his right ring finger rose a bit, as it always does when he is trying to cover his feelings about something.

Severus and Tom exchanged a look. "It's personal, Master?" Tom hedged. 

"Tom." Harry warned. Tom hadn't gotten used to telling him what was wrong, he knew he needed to build more trust with Tom.

Severus sighed. "We are angry at each other for you not spending time with us, Master."

"Come here." Harry sat down on the couch and watched them get up and walk towards him and they again knelt down in front of Harry. "I have been spending time with each of you, so I know that isn't it. You are now grounded, your lab time will be cut down. No leaving our quarters unless it's for a meal or work related. If I have to ask again, you will find yourselves unable to sit down."

"May I ask that we work this out ourselves, Master?" Severus asked. 

"I agree with Severus, Master, we do need to work this out ourselves, Master." Tom told him. 

Harry leaned back against the couch and looked at them for a few minutes. He could see they were nervous about him finding out what was going on, but he also knew they needed to sort out their relationship between themselves. "I will allow it. However, I don't want to hear you two yelling at each other again. Now as the latest issue Dumbledore is trying to cause, he can't do a thing. He pulled you two aside to tell you those orders because he knew he couldn't back up his threat."

"I was right." Severus smirked, gloating.

"I told you he couldn't do it too. You just didn't want to listen to me, you kept saying it was in the contract that he couldn't. We were in agreement, except you wouldn't listen to what I was saying." Tom retorted. 

"Tom, corner, Severus room." Harry ordered. Tom got up and went to his corner and put his nose against the wall. He hated doing this but it did work. 

Severus walked slowly to the bedroom. He knew he was going to get a spanking. He glanced back and saw Harry was watching him. "Tom, fifteen minutes then I will address your attitude."

"Yes Master." Tom answered. He heard the timer start.

Harry got up and went into the bedroom. He saw Severus kneeling by the bed. His head was bowed. Harry went to the high back chair and sat down. "Severus, you know you are going to get a spanking. I want you to tell me why?"

"For gloating, and acting like a little kid. Since I acted like a little kid, I am going to get spanked like a little kid, Master."

"Yes, that is true. Come here." Harry told him. When Severus was in front of him, Harry asked, "now why were you acting like a little kid?"

Severus looked up and lowered his eyes. "Dumbledore got me upset than Tom and I started talking about what was happening. I was feeling jealous. Tom was going on about spending all the time with you."

"Yes, I have been spending time with him. Do you feel I have been neglecting you?" Harry asked, putting his hand under Severus' chin and tilting his head so that Severus had to look him in the eye.

"Not at first. We sleep together each night, and you always spend time with me each night, even when we have meetings or work to get done." Severus answered. "Master, I just feel confused."

"Come, sit." Harry patted his lap. Severus rose and sat down. "Severus, you know in your head that I have been spending time with you, but your heart feels different. Your head and heart don't always agree. It's just us in our bed every night. I neglect you?"

"No, Master." Severus seemed shocked by that. 

"Do I neglect you during the day?" Harry asked.

"No, Master, you make sure I take care of myself and protect me from Dumbledore." Severus said. "You are going to punish me for lying aren't you?"

"Did you lie?" Harry asked. He knew the answer, but Severus had to admit it.

"By omission, I knew what you wanted and I, instead, told you about the staff meeting, Master." 

"That you did, and that is why you are going to be punished, along with the gloating. That wasn't very nice. Tom hasn't done that to you, has he?"

"No, Master, to be honest, he has been a bit of a surprise. I thought he would be like his former self. Master, I am sorry."

"I know, now think about this, when you first meet Tom, he was already missing half of his soul, so you never really got to see the real Tom, until now." Harry said. "I will leave you two to work out your relationship but I expect you to apologize."

"Yes, Master. How many Master?"

"How many do you think?" Harry asked. 

"Lying that is at least twenty, gloating is ten at least, and ten for acting like a kid. I am still grounded aren't I, Master?"

"What do you think?" Harry asked, giving Severus a hug. 

"Yes, and I am going to say a week, am I right Master?" Severus asked.

"No, just until the students arrive in a few days. You really need to work on that always being right Severus." Harry told him.

"I know, Master, I am trying." Severus answered.

"Yes, you are, if you weren't, we would be addressing that issue. Now undress and let's get your spanking over with. Fifty than you will go and lay down in bed, take a nap." Harry knew that Severus would need a nap afterward, he always did after punishment. Emotions were something that took a lot out of Severus, but he was getting better at not burying his feelings.

"Yes Master."

___________________________________________________________________________

Harry put the blanket over Severus who was sleepy, his tears had stopped as Harry had held him after his spanking. "I will wake you in time for dinner, there is a glass of water on the table for you." Harry told him. "I am going to be in the living area if you need me."

"Thank you, Master." Severus mumbled.

Harry exited their bedroom and closed the door. He saw Tom was kneeling on the floor since his fifteen minutes was over. He walked to the couch. "What happened?" Harry asked as he sat down.

"I am not sure Master, we were talking about what Dumbledore wanted, and how to tell you. We got in here, and Severus was saying the same thing I was saying. It confused me. Master, can you allow us to work this out?"

"I will. I want you to tell me why you were punished." Harry knew Tom and Severus actually needed to sit down and talk and he was going to make sure they did. He patted his lap and Tom rose and grabbing a blanket, laid his head down on his Master's lap. 

"I acted like a brat. I shouldn't have responded back to Severus as you were already addressing our issue. I think I was looking for a fight, a fight for us to work out our relationship. I wanted to show him that I am not his Master. I went about it wrong." 

"How should you have handled it?" Harry was actually surprised they took this long for them to have a go at each other. Harry was running his hand through Tom's hair and down his back.

"I should have let him cool off, Severus has a temper, Master." Tom answered. 

"Tom, all three of us do." Harry smiled at him. He had no illusions about any of their tempers. 

"Master, may I ask you a question?" Tom turned his head to see Harry. 

"Yes, Tom." Harry answered, giving him a small smile.

"Am I ever going to share your bed, Master?" Tom asked.

"To be honest, yes, however, that will be discussed when the time comes for it. Severus is my first priority. I won't lie to you about any of this. I started this as a way to protect us from you and Dumbledore, of course, it's to protect all of us from Dumbledore. I told Severus he is my first priority." Harry explained.

"I know, I am fine with that, Master. I hurt him a lot. Dumbledore did too. I expect him to take a while to forgive me." Tom replied. "I have a lot to atone for."

"Tom, while you did do those things, it wasn't because you set out to do them. Dumbledore is at fault. He used you, he used Severus and my some fluke I found out what he was about before he could fully do it to me. He used Severus a lot, don't get me wrong. I also got extremely lucky in being able to get that contract signed by the old fool." Harry answered. "He will pay for what he has done."

"I am going to punished for fighting with Severus and acting like a kid, aren't I Master?" 

"You were punished by standing in the corner. I am not going to dish out punishments upon punishments, Tom. You are still grounded for the next few days, you did your time in the corner, it's over, you are forgiven." Harry answered, and gave him a kiss on his temple.

"Master, may I wake Severus later, so we can talk?" Tom asked.

"Yes, you may. That is an excellent idea." Harry told him. 

________________________________________________________________________________

"Severus, wake up." Tom gently shook Severus' shoulder.

"Tom? What is going on?" Severus quickly sat up in bed. He looked around. "Where is our Master?"

"At his desk, I asked if I could wake you. I wanted to apologize to you. I knew you were in a mood and I didn't back down."

"I owe you one too." Severus replied. "I was upset for a few different reasons but none of them were caused by you. So I apologize also."

"We do need to talk." Tom said.

Severus moved over and Tom sat down on the bed, both of them leaning against the headboard. "How do we want to start this?" Severus asked. He wasn't looking forward to this conversion.

"I could say I am going to ask you to forgive me for what I did to you, I would like for you too, but I don't expect it. Our Master seems to feel that I am not at fault, as he reminded me that Dumbledore is the one who is responsible, and I wasn't fully sane at the time. I, however, did hurt you a lot." Tom said, he smiled as Severus laid the blankets over them. 

"As our Master reminded me of that same thing. You did hurt me a lot, you hurt a lot of people but he is right that Dumbledore is responsible, I am not saying we are innocent but we also wouldn't have done that stuff if it wasn't for him." Severus told him. "Tom, I was feeling jealous." Severus told him honestly.

"I was too." Tom told him. "You get to sleep each night with our Master, he spends hours with you in the lab, you also get to put your head in his lap each night. He cuddles you." 

Severus looked at Tom, he wasn't expecting that. "I was jealous because he spent the day with you, training you at times."

"I asked him about sleeping with him. He told me, again, you were his priority. I understand that you know."

Severus started to laugh. "We are idiots." At Tom's confused look. "We wanted to speak to each other about what was going on, but from what you said that you two talked about and what we talked about, he already knew why were fighting."

Tom smirked at Severus. "You are right, he did." He took Severus' hand. "I did miss you, afterward. When I was here for our Master's first year, it was clear my insanity was in full bloom, but I still wanted you."

"What is it with suddenly I am in demand? I couldn't get a boy to touch me when I was at Hogwarts and after you disappeared, no one wanted anything to do with me, now people wanting me are coming out of the woodwork." Severus laughed. He was feeling relieved, he had wondered what was going on with Tom.

"You hide really well." Tom explained. "If they saw what our Master and I saw, you would have been bonded years ago, with a bunch of brats."

"So what do we do now?" Severus asked.

"We let him know that we talked, I would like to earn my way back into your good graces and your bed." Tom told him.

Severus looked sheepish as he answered, "we haven't had intercourse yet, we have been doing touching, kissing and cuddling."

"Severus after how I treated you and I know others didn't treat you with respect either, I am just grateful you are willing to talk to me." Tom put his hand over Severus' "I don't blame you for waiting to go slow. I am glad our Master is taking great care of you and going slow."

Severus looked down at Tom's hand, he turned his head to look at Tom, "he does. Tom, he is what we needed."

"I agree. Severus would you be upset if I joined you in the bed? I don't expect him to have sex with me, and I won't do anything to you unless you ask and our Master is fine with it, I just really want to be with the both of you."

Severus stared at the wall for a few minutes, neither of them saying a word. "I need to think about it."

"I don't expect it to happen this month Severus, I really want you to think about it. I know you need time. I am not going to rush into a relationship with either of you until we are all secure in our roles." Tom explained. "I just wanted you to know how I felt and why I was jealous." 

"I appreciate it, I do. You haven't been pressuring me, I think I was expecting you to and that expectation kept building."

"I understand, I kept expecting you to slip me a few potions." Tom answered. 

"We turned into softies. We would never have had this type of conversation before." Severus sighed. "Our Master is the ultimate Slytherin and he has us talking about feelings."

Tom smiled. "He is sneaky isn't he?"

"Tom, I will make you a deal, we will work on our relationship. Friendship and later more, I will promise to think about you joining us if you honor my request to go slow and not rush me." Severus told him. "I know our Master will let us decide how our relationship is going to develop."

"He will, he already told me that and I agree to the deal. I, Tom Mavolo Riddle, also known as Corvinus Gaunt Peverell, promise to honor the request of Severus Tobias Potter to go slow, to work on our relationship. So mote it be."

"So mote it be. Thank you, Tom." Severus smiled at him. "We better go out there and let him know we haven't killed each other."

"You're welcome." Tom answered. "Severus, what do you say to pranking Dumbledore?"

"I thought you would never ask."


	11. First Day

Severus groaned as he woke up. The students would be returning tonight and tomorrow was the first day of classes. He knew that Granger and Weasley duo would be trouble. He wasn't looking forward to tomorrow, as he had class with Gryffindor first thing in the morning and he knew that today Dumbledore was going to cause problems.

"It's too early to be stressing about Gryffindors." Harry told him, pulling Severus close to him. 

"Master." Severus snuggled into Harry's arms. "You know he is going to make tonight and the rest of the school year difficult."

"Not as much as we're going to make their year miserable. I arranged a special surprise for tomorrow at breakfast." Harry kissed Severus' shoulder.

"As a rule, I don't usually like surprises, but I have a feeling I will like this one." Severus grinned. "We do need to get up, Master. We have a lot to do still."

"Yes and I need to make sure Lucius will be ready for the mess of trouble Dumbledore will try to create." Harry said. They heard a knock. "Enter." 

Tom came into the bedroom. "Master, he is in the floo, demanding to speak to you." 

"Demanding? Interesting." Harry said. "Seems Severus you were correct. He is going to be difficult." Harry got out of bed, Tom handed him his dressing gown, and he headed to the floo in their main living quarters.

Tom gave a questioning look to Severus. "I warned him that Dumbledore was going to make tonight and the rest of the school year difficult." Severus put on his dressing gown. "I will go and start tea and coffee."

"That he will. It's already started." 

They headed out of the bedroom to hear Harry say "no, I will not be going to King's Crossing. I am already here, I am not leaving, riding a train just to return here nine hours later."

"My boy, it's your last year, don't you want to enjoy some time with your friends before school starts?" Dumbledore asked.

"No, I will see them when they arrive tonight for the feast." Harry answered. He knew Dumbledore wanted him to join his pets on the train. He was going to be in for a surprise when he realizes just how little time he was going to spend with them. He really hoped the man wasn't that naive enough to believe that just because he sold Severus to him, that all was going to be forgotten. However, the past two weeks had shown the man really did expect Harry to be Granger and the two Weasleys friends. To cheer himself up while the old coot rattled on, Harry began to think of the different articles Rita would be releasing starting tomorrow.

"My boy, don't you agree?" He heard. Harry looked at Severus who shook his head no. Severus and Tom realized their Master hadn't been listening to the old fool.

"No. I don't agree. Now, I am going to eat and do some studying." Harry closed the floo before Dumbledore could respond. "What was he trying to get me to agree to?"

"He wanted you to allow us to spend the day assisting him in some research and setting up the Great Hall for tonight. He said he planned on something special, Master." Severus told him, as he leaned against the door jam to the kitchenette. 

Before they could say another word the floo chimed again, and Minerva was in it. "Harry, he is headed down to your quarters. He wants to force you into letting him use Tom and Severus for the day. However, Filius and I saw that he had some potion phials in his robes and Hat said that he was looking at some spells for a loyalty oath."

"He plans on using the vessel oath, it requires a loyalty potion to be given, once given it forces the drinker to swear any oath after the spell is cast. However, it doesn't work on someone already bound. It was designed to be used on prisoners of war, to ensure they would remain loyal to their new lord, it was from the middle ages." Tom told them. "When he sold Severus to you, Master, that created a bond, and when I agreed to be collared because we spoke it parsel, it became more binding than if we hadn't. So, therefore, the potions will just make us sick them back up."

"If he manages to slip them to us, I hope we get sick on his robes." Severus muttered.

"Not that you would be able to tell the difference." Minerva commented, causing them to laugh. 

"Thank you, Minerva. Tom, if he tried it with me, would it work?" Harry asked. Minerva was interested in that answer too. They didn't need the crazy old fart to get control over Harry. 

"No, Master because you're our Master, it's designed for those without a vessel under them, it's one of the reasons why the spell fell out of favor, because it wouldn't work on the defeated Lords, the vessel, if they were already bound would remain loyal to their first Lord. It worked on villagers, but not serfs for example." 

"Interesting, get me the information on this spell, and any other type of spell similar in design. I want to make sure we are aware of anything he might try." Harry told him.

"Yes, Master." Tom replied. He would enjoy this assignment. He loved researching old magics and rituals.

They heard a knock on their door. Severus glanced at the hidden parchment that said who was at the door. "It's him, Master." 

"Let me know how it goes." Minerva said and closed the floo.

"Start to serve tea, please, Tom. Severus let him in." Harry said as he took his seat. He had this morning's newspaper next to his place setting on the table.

"Yes Master." They replied.

Severus opened the door with his wand and ignoring Dumbledore joined Tom in the kitchenette. Dumbledore smiled. "Harry, my boy, I really need to borrow Severus and Corvinus. The other Heads of Houses are extremely busy getting things ready for the students' arrival. I need to have Severus make sure Slytherin is also set."

"It is." Severus entered the room, carrying a bowl of fruit. "The house is fully cleaned, the house elves dusted everything off and the bookshelf has all the correct books. My potion closet is filled, I am not sure about Horace's but we did deliver the supplies to him over a week ago, the next day after we arrived to be precise."

"Yes, I am aware, however, he hasn't had time to straighten things out in regards to the supplies. The labs are only half done and but the classroom is completed." 

"You expect Severus to get the Professor Slughorn's labs and his potion cabinet done today? Are you aware how long it takes to sort out a cabinet? During a detention, it can take all day on Saturday and that is after just a few days of students gathering ingredients. They are already labeled and sorted." Harry remarked. 

"That is one of the reasons why I need Corvinus also." Dumbledore sat down and looked at Severus and Tom. Tom, without a word, started to pour tea.

"No." Harry answered. "It was his job to get everything ready. We did our part. Corvinus assisted anyone who asked over the last few days. Severus got the DADA classroom ready, his potion lab, and cabinet set. We have been brewing potions for Madam Pomfrey for the last few days, we have done more than our share." 

"It's a team effort, we all must do our part." Dumbledore gave him a slight smile and his eyes were twinkling away as he took a cup of tea from Tom.

"Yes, they should have, if they did, I am sure Professor Slughorn would not be so far behind. I mean saw him heading to Hogsmeade almost every day this week, I believe he said he was meeting people for lunch." Harry took a sip of tea, Tom had prepared it just the way he liked it.

"Yes, I am aware and have spoken to him, however, we can't allow the student to suffer for it." Dumbledore tried again.

"I am sure Professor Slughorn will get it all setup for tomorrow's first class. After all, if students can do it in detention, I am sure someone of Professor Slughorn's caliber will have no problem." Harry replied. "We still have to finish some healing potions and I believe make some Grand Pepper-Up potions." 

"Burn Salve, Master. We finished the healing potions." Severus informed him. "I already have everything cut and ready to brew."

"Thank you, Severus, as you can see Professor Dumbledore, we also have a full day ahead of us." Harry responded. He knew very well they were finished with the ones needed for the infirmary, but they were making ones for the War, just in case. 

"Harry as a student here, you can't tell Severus and Corvinus what to do. If they want to assist Professor Slughorn, they have the right." 

"Actually Severus doesn't, but Corvinus can offer, however since he is basically under my authority as the Master of his Master, I do have a lot of say in what they do." Harry replied and saw the anger flutter across Dumbledore's face. "You are the one who agreed to terms." 

"I am aware of the terms, Harry." Dumbledore rose, putting his teacup on the table. He did a little bit of wandless magic and knew they didn't see it. "I will speak to you later." He didn't wait for an answer but left their quarters.

"Dump the tea, he ruined a perfectly brewed tea." Harry grumbled.

"I hope he wasn't expecting us to drink anything after he left, Master." Severus said, picking up their tea cups as Tom took the pot.

"I brewed this special for us. It was that tea that Lucius got us, from China." Tom looked down at the ruined pot of tea and the leaves that were still in the tea strainer. "Git." He muttered under his breath.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Harry was sitting at Gryffindor table when everyone started to filter into the Great Hall. He greeted his friends and as he was speaking to Neville, Granger attacked him, well to her it was a hug. "Let go of me, Granger." She was lying on his back with her arms wrapped around him.

"Harry, I was so worried when we didn't find you on the train." Granger gushed out, her hair landing on Harry's face as she was speaking while looking around the hall. "How was your summer? Did you get all of your assignments finished? I can help you if you need it."

Harry pulled himself away from her and faced his three former friends, the trio was standing behind him with Granger in the middle. "I don't need nor do I want your aid, Granger. You will cease calling me Harry, we aren't friends."

"Harry, we have been mates since our first year." Weasley said, as his sister forced Dean over so she could sit next to Harry.

Harry removed his hand from Ginny's, she kept trying to take hold of it. "Stop Weasley, I want nothing to do with any of you." He turned around and faced Neville who was on his left and Seamus who was sitting opposite Neville. "I can see they think I am their friend, despite what they have done to me."

"Makes you wonder about Granger's intelligence." Neville remarked, giving the trio a seething glare, most of the students knew what happened over the summer, not about Severus but about them stealing from Harry, about how Ginny tried to rape Harry and of course, Dumbledore's involvement. 

"Harry!" Granger and Weaslette almost shouted, causing most of the hall to look over to them. "How can you say that?"

"Easy. I opened my mouth, the words were amazingly simple to say. We aren't friends." Harry stood up and moved to the other side of Neville as Dean joined him when Parvati moved over to allow them to sit down. All of Gryffindor moved away from the three betrayers, leaving them separated by a few seats on each side of them.

Dumbledore stood up and the hall fell silent as he raised his hand to get everyone's attention. "This ought to be interesting." Neville quietly said to them.

"Welcome back, we have some changes in the staff this year. Returning to us, after enjoying a bit of retirement, is your new potion instructor Professor Horace Slughorn." Slughorn stood up, bowed, waved as he sat down. "The new Defense Against the Dark Arts is Professor Snape."

"Potter." Harry yelled out. "Professor Potter." He knew most of the students were trying not to laugh. The last meeting they had been warned that Dumbledore was going to try and keep things hidden.

"Five points for disrespect Mr. Potter." Dumbledore stared down at Harry. "Professor Snape." He started again.

"Potter." 

"Snape."

"Potter." 

"Detention." Dumbledore snapped out, losing control of his anger.

"Not going to change his name." Harry said. "It's Potter."

Severus stood up. "It's Potter." He sat down. He knew his Master wasn't going to serve any detention and those points would be back before morning. He also expected they would be called up to the Headmaster's office. The man really should have known better, his Master had already told him his last name was Potter. 

"Professor Potter with assistance from Associate Professor Corvinus Peverell. Professor Peverell is under an apprentice agreement with Professor Potter. He will be assisting in a variety of classes. Now enjoy." Dumbledore sat down and sent a quick note to Harry, demanding his presence after the Welcoming Feast was over.

Harry looked at the parchment that appeared in front of him, he didn't even open it. Before he took his first bite of food, he heard, "Harry, how could you disrespect the Headmaster?" From Granger.

"The Git isn't a Potter." From Ron.

"Are you bonded to him?" From Ginny, who had been trying to flirt with him from where she was sitting by tossing her hair around. 

Harry ignored them and asked Neville "so how is your grandmother?"

"She is great, she said she wanted to have you over for the Yule holiday. She wants to actually hold a ball." 

"That sounds like fun." Parvati said. They knew in reality that Neville was telling their group that his grandmother knew the truth and wanted to meet with Harry as soon as he could, even if it was over the Yule holiday. 

"It does. I would be honored to visit over the holiday." Harry gave Seamus a nudge as Granger and the Weasleys were trying to move closer. Weaslette ended up sitting on Colin's lap.

"Do you mind Weasley? I would like to eat my meal without you on my lap." Colin told her.

"Budge over then." Weaslette told him.

"No, go back to your own seat. This one is taken." Colin replied as a few others echoed his words. Weaslette got up and rejoined Granger and Weasley. 

"Granger got a note." Seamus told them. 

"You know, he might drag them up to his office to try and force you to work out your issues." Dean said. 

"I expect he will." Harry replied. "I expect him to try and force us to be seen as the Golden Trio, even after everything got revealed. He honestly believes that because I agreed to his terms, that all is forgiven."

"Idiot." Parvati and Neville said, laughing a bit as they all agreed with the statement. They spent the rest of the meal, ignoring the trio.

_________________________________________________________________________

Severus looked at his Master, they were walking to the Headmaster's office. "Minerva already gave you back the points and removed the detention." 

"I wasn't going to serve it anyways. I would file a complaint if I had to." Harry told him. "Granger got a note after I did, so I am expecting them to there."

"Harry, Severus." Headmaster Dippet appeared in the frame they just passed.

"Headmaster?" Harry questioned. 

"He has his sycophants in his office. He wants them to pressure you into "doing the right thing". He summoned them during dinner. He wants the wolf and that shrew to lecture you on how it wasn't a good idea to let Severus' last name out. Also something about getting you to sign some papers, they are to keep you from reading them and make you sign them. Phineas believes it's a proxy change form." 

"Thank you, Headmaster, can you get Minerva to interrupt the meeting. If any of you think we're in danger, get Filius and Tom to join us also, have Filius summon Lucius, as a member of the Board of Governors, we can control anything if we need to." Harry told the man.

"Will set it up while you two walk there. Go slow, so we can make sure everyone is in place, just in case." Headmaster Dippet disappeared. 

They continued on their way until they heard "Harry." 

They looked at the painting of the Battle of Glen Trool. Robert the Bruce waved them closer "Oswalt said for you to wait by the painting of the fruit bowl with the little Marquis in it. The gargoyle and the Marquis will tell you when everything is set up."

"Thank you, Robert." Harry bowed to the man. "I hope he doesn't think that this will work."

"I have a feeling Master, we will be having a lot of these meetings."


	12. Setting the Tone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~ = parseltongue

Harry stood by the last portrait by the gargoyle. Severus and Tom were by the stairs, watching for anyone approaching. Otis appeared and started hissing. ~Harry, he has his some of his Order people there. They want you to sign a few different things, including a marriage contract to Trashy. The wolf wanted to get control over you, with your vaults and seats being given to Albus. The red haired shrew is to make sure you feel like you are letting down your family. Also that Severus is to be placed under Albus.~

Phineas appeared in the frame. "the wolf is to try and imitated Severus. Reminding him about the past."

Oswalt appeared next to Otis, the snake. "They are in place, Mad-Eye is putting up a stink about being summoned for this. Lucius is waiting by the floo if you need him. Minerva is with Filius in her office. We will let her know if she is needed. Erick, he's the gargoyle, has been telling him you aren't here as of yet."

~We are working on ways to better communicate, some of the others have been working with Irma.~ Otis added.

"Thank you, I appreciate all you are doing. Kreacher." Harry grinned at Severus, who was clearly wondering what Kreacher could do to aid them with Dumbledore. "Payback time."

"Master, who does the name Black proud, what can Kreacher do?"

"There is a potion in my lab, it's a Reportando Pondus Potion. Make sure the potion finds its way into Weaslette's food and drink at every meal and snack she asks for. There should be enough for a few weeks, it just needs to be three drops, if you add more it won't make her sick." Harry knew Kreacher knew what the potion was and he was sure Kreacher would be adding more than three drops to anything she ate or drank.

Kreacher grinned. "Dobby and Winky will help." Kreacher popped away.

"I wondered what you were going to do with a weight gaining potion, Master. I will have more made by the end of the week." Severus gave Harry a kiss. He couldn't wait to see how fast the girl gained weight, by the end of the term, she might be bigger than her mother.

"Granger too, Master?" Tom asked. He wanted to pay that know-it-all back in a few different ways. The Weasley duo had made his list, along with their mother.

"No, I have another idea for her." Harry answered. "Something I think everyone will enjoy. Let's go and have some fun with the Order of Idiots. Erick, I believe we are ready."

The gargoyle nodded his head and moved away. They rode the stairs up, not bothering to walk as they rode the stairs up to the door. The door was opened when they got to the top. They saw Molly with her two youngest, Granger had a book opened, while Lupin was sitting down opposite Dumbledore. Mad-Eye gave him a nod, which Harry found interesting. He felt a note appear in his trouser pocket, Mad-Eye tilted his head to the right, the same side of Harry's pocket that the note appeared in. Harry wondered where the rest of the Order was. Minerva had told him there were a few others involved in the Order. He wondered where Tonks and Kingsley were. 

"Harry, I am so disappointed in you." Molly almost screeched. She was wringing her hands. "You're parents would be so ashamed of your attitude."

"Excuse me?" Harry stated, he was a bit impressed by her acting skills, but her eyes weren't matching her actions and Harry saw thoughts of how she planned on paying him back once they shipped him off to Azkaban. 

"You really shouldn't have been talking to the Headmaster like that in the Feast." Lupin stated. "What would Sirius have thought? Your parents would have never allowed you to speak like that to anyone."

Harry was wondering if they would go the Sirius route and he wasn't really surprised, but he wondered if they realized just how out of their sphere Sirius was. The man was crazy but he wasn't stupid. Sirius wasn't impressed by Dumbledore allowing him to stay in Azkaban. Sirius never wanted Harry to return to the Dursley's house. While Sirius didn't know the truth, he knew Sirius would be supporting him.

"You need to respect the Headmaster and listen to him." Granger added. "I can't believe how you acted in the Great Hall. We missed you and you treated us awful." 

"I won't even mention how you treated Ron and Ginny. Your behavior during the Welcoming Feast was disgraceful. Severus will be known as Severus Snape, how dare you undermine the Headmaster." Molly stated. "We do everything to keep you safe, we love you." Change her tactics, at the look from the Headmaster.

"Harry, you really need to listen to the Headmaster, he has only your best interest at heart." Lupin told him. "We only want the best for you. Snape needs to be Snape, we need to keep the rumors under control. We don't need to give anyone a reason to question you."

Severus, Tom, and Harry looked at them. Harry wasn't sure what they were trying to do, as they clearly were failing in trying to lure him back to their side. Their basic tactics were all over the place, from trying to be loving to commanding. "It's Severus Potter. Have you forgotten he sold Severus to me?" Harry looked at Dumbledore. "We settled that debate in the Great Hall."

"Harry, it's not like that." Molly stated. "It's just a way to protect everyone. You know we would never do anything to hurt you." Her mind flashed "we have to get the brat under control. I need the funds."

"Harry, the Headmaster is doing everything to enable you to defeat Who-Know-Who. We can't be divided. We need to be united, it's the only way to defeat him." Lupin stated. "Your parents supported the Headmaster fully, so did Sirius."

"You want me to allow her-" He pointed to Ginny "near me? After what she did?" Harry had to put a lot of effort into being shocked and surprised. He hoped they were enjoying the show because they were going to be for a surprise at the finale. He had no plans on ever allowing Ginny Weasley anywhere near him.

"Harry, it was a slight misunderstanding." Dumbledore twinkling eyes were looking at Harry. He needed the boy to listen to him.

"Really? Which part? The attempted rape or the multiple uses of the love potions?" Harry knew that Severus and Tom were wondering, as he was, what the man exactly hoped to obtain with this meeting. It certainly wasn't what he was expecting. They also weren't doing what they planned on doing, but then again, they most likely expected him to come all meek and ready to obey him.

"Harry, I thought we put this behind us." Dumbledore stated. "We need to move forward and you need the support of those who love you."

Harry started laughing, he couldn't help it. They really were expecting him to be meek and willing to obey them. Didn't his attitude during the last two weeks show the old fool he wasn't meek or willing to obey? "You really expect me to believe that, now that I know the truth? They aren't my friends, and it's Severus Potter and he will use that name. Now, is there anything else?"

"Harry, you need to sign this contract." Dumbledore tossed out a strong compulsion spell.

"No, I like the contract we have now." Harry stated. He felt the compulsion spell, felt it brush against his magic. "Now, is there anything else?"

"Harry, we need to work together, now is the time where we must be united." Dumbledore told him. "I am sure we can work this out. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny are your friends, you can't let a small misunderstanding get in the way of years of friendship."

"I have real friends, not ones who have been paid to be my friends." Harry gave him a slight smile. "However, I can assure you that everyone will get what they deserve."

"Harry, you need to listen to the Headmaster, he knows what's best. If he wants you to sign these contracts, you need to sign them." Lupin stated. He stood up, walked a bit towards Harry. "You know it's for the best."

"I do agree, Harry, it's for the best. You're a child, you need the guidance of more experienced adults." Molly gave him a small smile.

"As I stated, I am not signing anything. I am going to head to bed now. Goodnight." Harry turned. Severus and Tom were still watching the Order. Harry started towards the door. 

"I need to speak to Severus, privately, nothing to do with school matters." Dumbledore stated. He needed to get control back.

"No, Severus won't be speaking to you alone." Harry answered.

"So he can't speak for himself? I thought the house elves had it bad." Granger said. "SPEW has a new goal."

"Ms. Granger, don't speak about things you don't know anything about." Severus looked at the girl, his sneer and raised eyebrow.

"Snape!" Lupin rebuked him, standing up, walking towards him. "She is trying to help you."

"Back off Mutt." Severus stated. "I am fine. I am actually better than I have been in years." Lupin and Severus stared are each other.

"Remus, please sit. I believe everyone needs to sit down and we can discuss everything calmly." Dumbledore summoned some more chairs. "Now, as I was saying I do need to speak to Severus, Harry. You know we don't want to do anything to harm you."

"That isn't reassuring." Harry muttered, just loud enough for Severus and Tom to hear. "There isn't anything to discuss. The issue with Severus' name is solved, I am not signing any contract so that doesn't leave anything else left to discuss." 

"Git." Weasley tried to quietly stated but since no one was speaking, everyone heard it.

"Ah, there is a rapier wit I was expecting." Harry retorted. "We have nothing more to discuss. Good night."

Harry, Severus, and Tom exited Dumbledore's office, with Tom quietly closing the door. They walked down the stairs and stood by Erick. Oswalt waved them over to his frame. "They are yelling at the red-haired boy."

"Anything interesting so far?" Harry asked.

"No, just how he was to be your friend. Albus is demanding that they make up to you. He wants them to work on making you feel guilty. Granger and the other two are upset that the wolf didn't do his job, so Granger is in fully chiding mode. Molly is screaming about the contracts not being signed. You might want to check on why she is so eager for it to be done soon. They basically are all blaming each other for not getting you to listen to them. Albus will stop it in a few minutes. We will let you know what their new plans are." 

"Thanks, have Otis and a few he won't recognize watch his office while he is there. I don't want him to wonder how I know of his plans and connect it to the former headmasters." Harry stated. "Severus, is there a way to check to see if Weaslette is pregnant?"

"Yes, I know she was sexually active with a few different students over the summer, Master. I can do the charm at breakfast."

"Master, it might be a good idea to also have them keep an eye out for different potions and certain books that might appear in Albus' office." Tom suggested. "He may tell others not to use dark magic, but I saw a few titles, that I know are banned books in his bookcase."

"We already are." Phineas appeared in the frame. "We found a way to link the frames. Irma found it in a book, so Minerva, Lucius, Augustus, and Filius are also listening to what is going on in his office."

"Can we use a listening charm on the frames, record anything spoken in his office?" Severus asked Phineas.

"Already working on it. The Weasley Twins spoke to Neville, he said they want to come to the next meeting. I know we can trust them. So we, Minerva, Filius and I, spoke to them earlier today. They are going to work on finding ways for us to spy on them, without actually being around. They said they might be able to use a spell on the map. They said you would know what I mean by the map." Phineas stated.

"Yes, I do. Tell Fred and George their help is greatly appreciated and I look forward to speaking to them." Harry stated. He had wanted to talk to Fred and George, but was afraid if he went out in public, the Order would find a way to kidnap him and make it look like the Death Eater had done it.

"Add that I would be able to assist on any potions they might think of using." Severus added. "They were very creative in their potion making. Their potions would work well in a battle." He was thinking of their darkness potion and swamp hole. He knew he would tell Tom about them later.

"I can also assist." Tom stated. "I am not as good as Severus, but I have more of the ancient magics spells that might be able to be adapted and used."

"I will tell them." Phineas responded. "Irma can send them a frame. Minerva found a few empty ones in storage and we can send them to places we need to visit. Filius used an old charm to make them linked to the originals here in Hogwarts."

"Phineas, see if there are empty frames at other places that we can move around, we need a few at the Ministry." Harry told him. "We need as many ears and eyes as possible. I don't trust Dumbledore not to reveal everything. He likes to keep his plans to himself."

"Already on it. Lucius and Augustus are working on getting a few frames into the Minister's office and the Auror department."

"I can get some of my followers to add frames to their desks in the Ministry, Master. I have a few that weren't marked and they work there." Tom explained. "Lucius and I can get in contact with all of them."

"I can also see if some of my former snakes doing the same Master." Severus added, he gave Tom a slight smile. 

"Phineas, let the others know. Let's get as many frames out there, assign a few portraits to listen to the more important ones, have the ghosts be the messengers and see if they can spy on a few of Dumbledore's people." Harry looked at Otis. ~Otis, how about you and some snakes start listening in the cracks of the castle and Ministry. Have them get into places we can't get into. Set up a spying network. I believe Nagini might be able to assist with that.~

~She can Master. I can summon her later.~ Tom began to make plans on using his favorite familiar in a way she would love. Nagini loved being able to spy. ~She is at Slytherin Castle. It won't take long to get her here, or even one of the elves can get her.~

"We should move it to our quarters, Master." Severus warned. He didn't like the idea of them making plans so close to Dumbledore's office.

"You're right." Harry stated. "Tell everyone we will meet tomorrow night. There is a lot to discuss"

"Will do." Phineas disappeared to fulfill his new duties. He liked this young leader and was proud that the boy had Black blood in him. 

_____________________________________________________________

Once back in their quarters, Harry tossed up some parsel protection wards. He didn't trust Dumbledore not to try something. Something was bothering him, something was off in that meeting. Severus and Tom went to their knees and waited for their Master to sit down. "Was it me or was there something off in that meeting?" He pulled out the note Mad-Eye gave him. He read it, grinned. "It seems Tonks, Kingsley, and Mad-Eye would like to know what is going on. They don't like the excuse that Dumbledore gave them about you, Severus."

"Master, is Dumbledore must be using that those excuse for his own protection, like what we just heard. I am wondering what else he isn't saying to everyone. Dumbledore usual lets Mad-Eye know things, so he must have hidden something. I wonder what he told Mad-Eye?" Severus asked.

"He doesn't say, but I think based on that meeting, he is trying to say it was for your protection. I wonder what else he has been saying? Minerva wasn't able to go to the last two Order meeting because she needed to be here."

"Someone was off in that meeting, Master, he let us out of it to easy." Tom stated. "Granger and the Weasley were also acting to passive."

"I agree, Master." Severus stated. "Molly would have yelled a lot more. Granger would have been spouting off about slavery and the youngest Weasley's were too quiet."

"We will find out why I am sure. Tomorrow he will be in for a surprise. Rita starts her articles." Harry yawned. "Now, however, I think it's bed time."


	13. Annoyances

Harry stormed into his quarters. He saw Tom was in the kitchenette, Severus was at his desk, he slammed his bookbag into the chair. He threw his cloak to the hook and using magic, hung it up. "I'm going to kill them."

"The Golden Idiots, Master?" Severus asked, it was his new name for Granger and the Weasley duo and everyone seemed to agree it worked.

"Yes, I was in the library and Weaslette actually jumped onto my lap, sending my book that was on my lap to dig painfully into my thighs, my parchment and quill to the floor and ink all over my trousers. Look." Harry pointed to the ink spots on his trousers. "I couldn't get it out." 

"It won't come out, Master." Tom stated as he handed Harry a teacup. "I am assuming there is more?"

"Yes, there is. When Dean and Neville said something about it, Granger gave them a lecture on how they were my best friends and it was an accident. She then proceeded to lecture me after I stood up and dumped Weaslette on the floor, on how I should treat a lady. Though I everyone in hearing distance found it hard not to laugh when I said, I would never treat a lady like that, however, Weaselette wasn't a lady as a lady wouldn't just sit in someone's lap like a harlot." Harry could see Tom and Severus were fighting laughing and he glared at them. "It got worse after that. All three of them started yelling until Irma kicked them out, after giving them a week worth of detentions." He headed to the bedroom. "Did Kreacher or Dobby bring back my black jeans?" He stopped at the door jam. 

"Yes, Master. Dobby put them away." Severus answered as he looked at Tom who was grinning. "So who did she assign them with?"

"You." Harry answered. "Tonight at 7. I hope you have fun." Harry entered the bedroom.

Severus smirked, as he waited for the bathroom door to close. "Tom, you have any plans for tonight?" He knew Harry was taking a shower. The ink would have leaked through his trouser. He hoped Kreacher or Dobby would be able to get the ink out.

"No. I was just going to review for tomorrow. What do you have in mind?" Tom asked he knew Harry wouldn't mind.

"I believe we are going to go and get some of the smellest, nastiest potion ingredients that need to be prepared. I know I have some frog's spleens that need to be drained."

"We have some dung beetles that need to have their sacks removed. Also, some onions need to be peeled." Tom grinned, as they began to make a list of what they could have the trio do without worrying about losing the potion ingredients. "We need to have the old potion closet and lab cleaned too. Since Horace is using the other two."

"I have some muggle toothbrushes they can use too." Severus added that onto the list. "A whole week." He almost let out the evillest of laughs.

"Oh, some squid ink needs to be drained. I have a tank of them in my office." Tom and Severus had a huge list by the time Harry exited the bathroom. 

Harry looked at the list. "Can we add some snake venom?" Harry asked. He knew Weasley would have a fit about touching a snake.

"No, Master, I wouldn't trust them with a snake. Dumbledore also might interfere if we did." Severus said. "Though I am sure Tom and I could find a lot of other things."

"I am sure you can. Irma will speak to Minerva about it. I know the three of them will run to Dumbledore about their detention." Harry stated. "We have to have dinner in the Great Hall tonight."

"Why do I have a feeling he has something planned for tonight?" Tom quietly asked Severus.

"Most likely he does. He is going to want to get even." They watched Harry gather things for the night. Books, parchment, ink. He changed out things in his bookbag. "Master, are you coming to the detention?"

"No, I told Neville and some others I would meet them in the ROR, we want to work on some spells and things. I have them marked in my books. We figured it would be a good time to meet since those idiots will be in detention and Minerva and Filius are going to keep Dumbledore busy with some fake concerns about the classes."

____________________________________________________________

Severus and Tom watched as the Golden Idiot entered the Great Hall followed by Neville, Dean, Seamus, with Draco, Pansy, and Blaise behind them. They were all glaring at the Golden Idiots. "I wonder what they did?" Tom asked quietly.

"I am not sure, but they certain got everyone upset. I haven't seen any Slytherin's lose their masks like that in a long time." Severus answered. 

They didn't have to wait long before they saw Granger clearly start giving Harry a lecture, based on the hands on her hips. Severus cast a quick eavesdropping spell. "Harry, it's your fault we are down in points and that we have detention tonight."

"I don't have a detention and I certainly didn't lose any points today, I actually gained 43 points." Harry responded as he took a sip of his pumpkin juice. "It's not my fault you three can't control yourselves."

"There was no need for what you called Ginny in the library."

"Well, she should act like a lady and one from a pure-blood house at that." Harry retorted.

"HARRY!!!!" Granger screeched, her voice carrying, causing several students to look at her, with a rebuke in their faces for yelling at Harry. "How could you?"

"I knew you were a snake." Spit Weasley. 

"Blood shouldn't matter." Weaslette stated.

"Who's been filling your head with that nonsense?" Granger stated.

"I bet it was that slimy git." Venom filled Weasley's voice.

"Actually, it's called manners and representing the correct form based on the fact that the Weasley and Prewett family are a Noble House. You want people to respect you, earn it. Respect is earned not given. Your family name will give you some. However, your actions would lose that common respect. It would be based on your action, which not even muggles would just sit in someone's lap, without some type of familiar relationship and they wouldn't do it in polite society. You should know that Granger." Harry turned and looked at Weaslette with a feral grin of retribution. "You're not my girlfriend, you are nothing to me. Stop touching me, trying to sit in my lap, and telling people you are my girlfriend. It's making you look pathic and desperate."

"Harry, we have a marriage contract." Ginny leaned into Harry. "We are going to be married when I graduate."

"Not even if Hell froze over, not even if you were that person on this planet, not even if you were the last person in this galaxy, would that happen." Harry smiled as he said it. "You will find yourself married to whoever signed that contract if you persist in the tales of a fake marriage contract."

"It's not fake. It's already signed." Granger smugly stated but was clearly confused as Harry grinned at her words.

Harry stood up. "I want to see this marriage contract, now." He demanded. He couldn't believe the old fool did it, despite all the warnings. He was wondering who Weaslette was going to end up marrying.

"You didn't?" Minerva said to Dumbledore as he looked a bit surprised by Weaslette's words.

"I believe it would be best if we speak in my office." Dumbledore finally recovered. He lost his twinkling. He was trying to recover and think of how to fix this. If Harry objected and using the old ways, he wasn't sure who exactly would end up marrying whom.

"No, here, since Weaslette brought it up. I am sure the rest of us would like to know what is going on." Harry stated. He noticed several staff members and students were in agreement with him. "As Lord Potter-Black, I certainly didn't sign nor did I agree to a marriage contract."

Granger looked around at the students, eyeing the Slytherins' and realizing how much of a mistake Weaslette did, pulled her and Weasley away from the table. "We need to talk."

At those words, Dumbledore looked like he was going to be sick. He wasn't expecting Harry to know what he was a Lord. He had been hoping to gain control over Harry but now, it became clear he would never get that control. He had been trying to illegally do it, but now that Harry had declared, in public, that he was Lord Potter-Black, he lost the opportunity. He glared at Ginny Weasley, realizing just how much like her mother she truly was. He slowly rose from his seat. "I shall return."

Harry walked up to Severus. "Get Lucius here. It's time he realizes just how badly he messed up. Keep everyone else hidden." He told Severus quietly. 

"Yes, Master." Severus stated, "Ironclaw too?"

"If Lucius feels it is necessary. Ironclaw has a port-key here." Harry answered. He sat down on the platform as Severus left by the staff entrance to return to their quarters. Harry could see all his supporters were spreading the word how illegal the contract was. The Golden Trio were huddled together, trying to figure out what happened. He glanced at Tom, tilted his head towards where the Golden Trio was sitting. Tom pulled out his wand and cast the eavesdropping spell. 

"You might end up marrying to whomever magic decides."

"Why? I know it's legal and I will be Lady Potter-Black." Weaslette calmly stated. 

"I don't think it was legal. Did you see Dumbledore's face?" Weasley panic was leaking into his voice. 

"Professor Dumbledore." Granger automatically corrected. "I agree with Ron. He didn't like that you said that. Something is happening and I know Potter knows what is going on."

"He doesn't know anything. Didn't you keep him away from all that stuff? That what you and Ron were to do." Weaslette responded.

"I think he knows a lot more than we know. He knows the pure-blood manners regarding the wizard's world. Though he did mention Muggles, too. He was correct about you sitting in his lap." Granger said thoughtfully. "We are missing something, something happened when he took charge of Professor Snape."

"You think Snape is controlling him, instead, of Harry controlling Snape? Maybe he is teaching him all that snake stuff about blood purity." Weasley looked over at the Slytherin table, none of the Golden Idiots noticed the glares they were receiving from the other tables. 

"He could be. We will need to mention it to Professor Dumbledore, it might be the way to break the contract." Granger stated. 

Harry arched an eyebrow and could see several of the staff were wondering what the girl was thinking. If they were breaking the contract Dumbledore would know. Tom ended the spell as Dumbledore returned carrying a rolled up piece of parchment. Severus returned as Dumbledore took his seat, followed by Lucius. Dumbledore was clearly surprised to see him.

"Lord Malfoy, I wasn't expecting you to attend." Dumbledore put the parchment in his robes.

"I heard an interesting bit of information concerning a marriage contract between a member of my family to a member of a family we have a long-standing dispute with." Lucius responded. "I would like to see this contract."

"I am sure we can resolve this, calmly. I am aware of your family ties due to your wife to the Black family." 

Harry heard several coughs as they covered their snort of laughter while some gasped in understanding what was going to happen. Harry stood up and joined Lucius and Severus. "The contract, please." 

Dumbledore looked around the Great Hall, seeing the watching students and staff, he produced the contract. He handed it, begrudgingly, to Harry. Harry opened the contract and everyone waited as he read the contract. They knew it was bad when Harry's magic unleashed and broke the glassware and plates on the tables, as well as several windows. "Lord Potter-Black." Lucius said quietly.

Harry thrust the contract at Lucius. "Read it." 

Lucius read the contract and understood why Harry was upset. He began to read:

Harry James Potter, hereinafter referred to as Prospective Husband, and Ginerva Molly Weasley, hereinafter referred to as Prospective Wife, hereby agree on this 10th day of January, in the year 1995, as follows:

Prospective Husband and Prospective Wife contemplate marriage in the near future and wish to establish their respective rights and responsibilities regarding each other's income and property and the income and property that may be acquired, either separately or together, during the marriage.

Prospective Husband and Prospective Wife will make a full and complete disclosure of their financial assets and liabilities to Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore as set forth in the accompanying Financial Statements. The Financial aspect after the announcement of the marriage shall be entrusted to Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore until the completion of the marriage when the financial aspect will be retrained by Ginevra Molly Weasley.

Except as otherwise provided below, Prospective Husband and Prospective Wife waive the following rights:

Upon the Prospective Husband's death, the estate fully belongs to the Prospective Wife. In the event of the Prospective Wife's death, the estate shall revert to the Weasley Family Head, even if the Prospective Husband is in good health.

To spousal maintenance, both temporary and permanent shall be maintained by Prospective Husband, in the sum of 14,000 Galleons per month to Prospective Wife.

The Prospective Husband shall pay the Weasley family a bride price of 1,000,000,000 Galleons.

The Prospective Husband shall buy a new home for the Prospective Wife, based on the approval of said residence by the Prospective Wife.

All properties of the Prospective Husband shall be signed over to the Prospective Wife.

The Prospective Wife is entitled to the pension, profit-sharing, or other retirement accounts the Prospective Husband.

To the division of the separate property of the parties, whether currently held or hereafter acquired shall revert to the Prospective Wife.

This agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties and may be modified only in a writing executed by both Prospective Husband and Prospective Wife, and shall be completed within one month after the graduation of the Prospective Wife or if the contract is made public before that date.

The Prospective Husband agrees to the following conditions starting the day the marriage contract is released to the public:

Article I  
I agree to complete and instant obedience of any command from my Prospective Wife.

Article II  
I agree to be trained in any manner my Prospective Wife wishes.

Article III  
I agree and will submit to any discipline or punishment my Prospective Wife sees fit.

This might include, but is not limited to:

Punishment strokes, delivered in any manner my Prospective Wife chooses.  
Prolonged bondage or gagging in any manner my Prospective Wife chooses.  
Being forced to sleep on the floor, in chains or bondage as my Prospective Wife sees fit.  
Confinement in a cage, cell or locked box.  
Deprivation of food or sleep.  
Assignment and completion of punishment tasks.  
Humiliation. 

ARTICLE IV

I agree to conform to the following behavioral specifications:

I will not sit, lie on, or use the furniture without the expressed permission of the Prospective Wife.  
I will not go to the bathroom without permission from my Prospective Wife.  
I will keep myself scrupulously clean at all times.  
I will not get into or out of bed without my Prospective Wife’s permission.  
I will not eat or drink without the permission of my Prospective Wife.  
I shall never embarrass my Prospective Wife in any way.  
I will not engage in malicious gossip or use insulting or demeaning language towards others.  
My manner and tone will be that of a slave at all times and will reflect deference to my Prospective Wife at all times.  
I will not act defensively when questioned by my Prospective Wife.  
I will never interrupt my Prospective Wife, or others when speaking.  
I will lose weight or be developed by working out to suit my Prospective Wife.  
I will not engage in sex, intimate touching, or engage in any scene without the expressed permission of my Prospective Wife.  
I will always serve the Prospective Wife in a kneeling position, eyes downward, and holding the position until released by my Prospective Wife.  
I will tell the truth at all times.  
I will inform my Prospective Wife promptly if I break any of my Perspective Wife’s rules.

Article V  
I agree to put on, wear, or take off any article of clothing or instrument of bondage, at any time, at the command of my Prospective Wife.

Article VI  
I agree to be marked (using a temporary means of marking) or shaved in whatever manner and at whatever time my Prospective Wife sees fit.

In the event it is determined that a provision of this agreement is invalid because it is contrary to applicable law, that provision is deemed separable from the rest of the agreement, such that the remainder of the agreement remains valid and enforceable.

This agreement is made in accordance with the laws and customs of the Magical world and any dispute regarding its enforcement will be resolved by reference to the laws of the Magical world.

I HAVE READ THE ABOVE AGREEMENT, I HAVE TAKEN TIME TO CONSIDER ITS IMPLICATIONS, I FULLY UNDERSTAND ITS CONTENTS, I AGREE TO ITS TERMS, AND I VOLUNTARILY SUBMIT TO ITS EXECUTION.

Harry James Potter  
Prospective Husband

Ginevra Molly Weasley  
Prospective Wife

Signed this day, 10th day of January, in the year 1995, as witnessed by:

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, magical guardian of Harry James Potter, and legally entering into this contract as his magical guardian.

Hermione Jean Granger

Ronald Bilius Weasley

Sirius Orion Black, Godfather of Harry James Potter, and legally entering into his agreement, with his magical guardian, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, as Harry James Potter's Godfather.

Remus John Lupin

Molly Ginevra Weasley nee Prewitt, parent of Ginevra Molly Weasley.

Arthur Maximian Weasley, parent of Ginevra Molly Weasley.

Chaos erupted as everyone starting yelling at the Dumbledore. Harry whispered to Lucius, "did you see the date on the contract?"

"Yes." Lucius looked at the date again, wondering how it was important, and grinned as he realized why it was important, not that the contract was valid anyways. They would be able to hide part of the Potter and Black family charter just because of the date.

Those in the know were enjoying the chaos until Dumbledore shot a firework into the area. "Quiet." He demanded. Once everyone was quiet he spoke again. "We will be having a marriage ceremony here in one month."

"Yes, we will, to bad it won't be mine." Harry commented, causing a few to cheer. 

"It's a legal contract."

"No, it's not. I didn't sign it and will swear on my magic I didn't. Also, the date, if you look at it, it's dated after I was declared an adult, making your and Sirius' authorization invalid." Harry grinned as he said, "I wonder what will happen when I call Lady Magic to judge the contract?" 

Shouts and laughter erupted again as Harry finished speaking.


	14. Judging and Marriage

While chaos was breaking out in the Great Hall, Harry quietly asked Severus to do the charm on Weaselette. Severus nodded his agreement. He made his way to Poppy, he explained what he was going to do, and wanted her to provide confirmation. They moved to Filius as Dumbledore was debating with Lucius and Minerva. 

"She is pregnant. Almost two months." Poppy confirmed.

"I agree. Can you determine who the father is?" Severus asked. Severus put his magical signature on the scan and handed his to Poppy, who folded them and put them in her pocket. 

"Yes, as it's over six weeks. I need you to make sure that Albus doesn't see it." Poppy stated. Filius heard, he joined Severus in keeping Dumbledore from seeing Poppy cast the spell. She was a bit surprised by the results. She wanted to laugh. Dumbledore wasn't going to like this. She approached Dumbledore and the group. "Perhaps we should get the students under control."

"Yes, of course." Dumbledore agreed. He shot a firework out of wand. "Everyone please sit down." When everyone was seated, he gave them all his twinkling eyes and grandfather smile. "Now, as I was saying we will be having a wedding in a month."

"Not mine." Harry yelled, causing several to laugh.

"Mr. Potter, the contract is valid."

Harry stood up. "Lord Malfoy, as someone familiar with magical contracts, can you provide me with the incantation on how to determine if a contract is valid? I am afraid Hogwarts doesn't provide that type of education." He knew it was a dig at Dumbledore and his lack of providing adequate classes.

"I most certainly can. We do, however, need Madam Bones, Minister Fudge, and at least three goblins were to verify that judging." Lucius responded.

"Great, I am sure we can have it done today." Harry replied. He didn't want to take a chance on Dumbledore trying anything if they didn't do it now.

"We certainly can." Lucius agreed. "Minerva, can you send a Patronus to Amelia, I will send one to Cornelius, Filius, perhaps you can handle the goblin end. We need three account managers." Letting Filius know they wanted Ironclaw, Griphook, and Silverax to arrive.

They all agreed. Dumbledore in an attempt to keep it from being known, said, "all students will be escorted to their dorms."

"No. As a member of the Board of Governors, all students, unless you desire to leave, can remain as witnesses." Lucius summoned a chair and sat down at the Head Table. No student left. 

___________________________________________________________________________

Everyone was eating slowly, they didn't want to give anyone any reason to make them leave. Harry was quietly talking to his friends, while Dumbledore was trying to get the staff to support his decision to make the students leave. 

Soon everyone had arrived. Madam Bones really tried not to gloat as she knew what was going to happen. The Minister arrived with four Aurors, three of them happened to be Order members, and one was a follower of Tom's. Dolores Umbridge was standing behind the Minister. This was going to be interesting. 

"Well, since I was called away from my dinner, I say we get it over with." Cornelius stated.

"I thought she was dead." Harry said to Neville.

"Me too. I wonder how she got away from the Centaurs?" Dean asked.

"She did a burst of accidental magic, she will help make the Bee pay." Luna quietly stated.

Harry looked at Luna. "Really. So she will actually have a useful purpose." 

"She won't be working there after tomorrow." Luna informed Harry. She leaned in close. "She got her termination notice this week, it's why she is hiding behind Fudgy, she is trying to show him she is needed and how much she supports him." Luna sounded normal, which Harry knew she had more information. "It's a good surprise."

Harry smirked. "I love how you work."

"I know." 

"Mr. Potter, if you would please join us." Ironclaw stated. 

Harry realized he has missed Lucius explaining what was going on. Harry rose and walked to where the goblins had set up a small ritual table. "The contract will be placed in the middle after it is placed, you must light the candles, starting with this one." Ironclaw pointed to the candle to his left. "It faces North, you must light them in a clockwise motion. Once all of them are light, you will say the incantation." 

Harry looked at the number of candles, there were sixteen, all set up at a point in a compass. He was handed a piece of parchment. "This is the incantation, if Lord Malfoy would take you aside for you to practice, we will lay out the incense and start the cleansing ritual."

Harry read the parchment. "I, Seumas Harry Potter, Tighearna Potter-Black, ghairm i air Lady Magic a thoirt seachad cùmhnant ceangaltach a chur an cèill ann an òrdugh air an draoidheach cearcall de breitheanas. Aice breithneachadh bithidh dheireannach. Ma tha an cùmhnant dligheach, thèid a choimhlionadh, ma tha an cùmhnant a tha mì-dhligheach, an uair sin peanas a bhi air a shònrachadh leis a 'Bhean Uasal Magic."

He looked at Lucius, "try it again, I will correct your pronunciation." 

"What am I saying? What language?" Harry asked.

"It's Scottish Gaelic, and you are saying "I, Harry James Potter, Lord Potter-Black, call upon Lady Magic to issue her decree on the magical binding contract set forth in the circle of judgment. Her judgment shall be final. If the contract valid, it will be fulfilled, if the contract is invalid, then punishment shall be assigned by Lady Magic." When you say it, you will feel the magic, and we will be able to see Lady Magic pass her judgment. Now, let's get it right." Lucius smirked. 

They went through the incantation a few times. Harry could smell the sage that was purifying the air. Tom and Severus at one point joined them. "Lucius, if this is done correctly, it could get rid of Dumbledore for good."

"Exactly." Lucius smirked. 

Poppy got close. "I know you are busy, but Lucius, this might be something you need to be aware of. Ms. Weasley is pregnant, that is why she has been trying to get Harry. We did the scan and know who the father is, and it's not Harry. However, I heard Dumbledore send for the Weasley family. So there might be a problem brewing." 

"May I see the scans?" Lucius asked. 

Poppy pulled them out, handing them to Lucius. The group all smirked as they read the results. "Is Rita here?" Tom asked.

"I believe Draco sent for her. So she should be here by now." Severus responded. 

"This might just seal their fate." Lucius responded. 

"You mean all of our plans might be nothing?" Harry pouted. 

"Not all, Master, but the ones for them. Yes, Lady Magic doesn't like being called on and her punishments are swift and will take into account those that aid them, and those that will provide them with the worse punishment." Tom explained. 

Harry nodded and ran through the incantation again. "Perfect, don't rush it, take your time." Lucius instructed. 

Harry took his place at the ritual table. Ironclaw, Griphook, and Silverax faced him. "The Judgment Ritual is ready to start. Everyone in your place." Ironclaw instructed. 

Dumbledore, Granger, Weasley, Weaslette, with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, were in a circle. "Where is Remus Lupin?" Griphook asked.

"He is coming." Minerva stated. "I had to floo him. He should be here soon."

Everyone waited, and finally, Lupin opened the Great Hall doors and before he could say a word, Filius guided him over to Dumbledore. "What is going on?" Lupin asked.

"A Judgment Ritual on the marriage contract between Harry Jame Potter and Ginerva Molly Weasley." Silverax stated. "We are now ready to proceed."

"Wait? What? Why? I mean the contract wasn't to be announced until Ginny was out of Hogwarts." Lupin looked around.

"Miss Weasley announced it in the Great Hall tonight." Minerva informed him. "Lord Potter-Black is disputing it."

Lupin paled but didn't say anything. Harry, with his wand, began to light all the candles. He took his time and focused on the task at hand. When the candles were light, he opened the piece of parchment with the incantation on it, and slowly, clearly, called for Lady Magic. "I, Seumas Harry Potter, Tighearna Potter-Black, ghairm i air Lady Magic a thoirt seachad cùmhnant ceangaltach a chur an cèill ann an òrdugh air an draoidheach cearcall de breitheanas. Aice breithneachadh bithidh dheireannach. Ma tha an cùmhnant dligheach, thèid a choimhlionadh, ma tha an cùmhnant a tha mì-dhligheach, an uair sin peanas a bhi air a shònrachadh leis a 'Bhean Uasal Magic."

As the last word faded, the air started to crackle with static electricity, if you were a muggle, but was magic building around the groups involved. The magic built up by Harry and the ritual table. It flowed, like swirls around him and the table. You could see the ends of the swirls looking like bright dots of light. It built, growing wilder and fierce. It crept from Harry to the circle of those being judged. When magic touched the circle, a huge gust of wind swept into the hall, picking up those in the circle. Magic danced around the group, before dropping them on the floor, and flowed to the contract. The contract glowed red, as magic again flowed around Harry. The magic started to decrease and finally, it released Harry and the contract. 

Ironclaw announced: "The ritual is completed. Judgment has been passed." He picked up the contract. "Lady Magic as decreed the following:

"First prospective husband is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the prospective wife decreed is Dolores Umbridge. Magical binds placed on their cores for damaging magical children, deceiving the magical world. Albus Dumbledore is guilty of the additional crimes of child endangerment of over fifty years. Embezzlement, robbery, line theft, misuse of power. Dolores Umbridge is guilty of the additional charges of misuse of a magical dark artifact on children, Blood Quills on 24 students at Hogwarts. Attempted murder of Harry James Potter and Dudley Vernon Dursley. Abuse of power in the killing of magical creatures."

Harry looked around the room, the only ones who were surprised were the few Order members and some students who weren't aware of the truth. Severus and Tom had joined him, with Lucius as they sat down on the platform. 

"The Second prospective husband is Hermione Jean Granger, the prospect wife is Orford Umbridge."

"Who?" Numerous voices asked. 

Ironclaw lowered the contract. "Mr. Orford Umbridge is the father of Dolores Umbridge and a squib son. He is an employee at the Ministry of Magic as a floor mopper. He abandoned his first wife and child." 

Laughter broke out. Harry thought it was the perfect punishment. Ironclaw continued. "Miss Granger's magic will be restricted. She will be limited to employment as a shop assistant or in the Ministry as a low-level employee in the Ministry for the next fifteen years if her husband allows her. After fifteen years, a review regarding her punishment will be assigned." 

When everyone stopped giggling, Ironclaw continued, "the third prospect husband is Ronald Bilius Weasley, the prospective wife is Basil Whitaker. His magic will also be restricted. He will be allowed jobs as a shop assistance or low-level employee in the Ministry for the next twenty years if his husband allows it. No review will be issued."

"Basil Whitaker? My son isn't marrying that man. He is useless." Molly stated. Basil was a Ministry of Magic employee. He worked for the Department of Magical Transportation, in the Portkey Office, as one of the ones who created a port key and authorized the use of them for the general public. At the Quidditch World Cup final in 1994, he was one of the wizards staffing the port key terminals and had been there for most of the morning with a large party that was arriving from the Black Forest in Germany. "I forbid it." 

Everyone ignored her. Ironclaw continued, "the fourth prospective husband is Remus John Lupin, the prospective wife is Fenrir Greyback. If not his mate, a beta from the pack will take the roll if so desired. The selection and further punishment of Remus John Lupin are in the hands of his Alpha Fenrir Greyback."

"No." Lupin looked sicked. "What did you do, Albus?" 

"Lastly, the fifth prospective husband is Ginerva Molly Weasley, the prospective wife is muggle Bruce Bartram, of 17 Ottery St, Catchpole. The father of the child she is carrying. For attempted line theft, attempted rape, magical bonds will be placed. The welfare of the child shall be monitored."

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Molly screamed. "You were told to stay pure."

"You know this is good, I don't think we could have asked for a better punishment for them." Harry quietly said to Severus and Tom. 

"It's Harry's child." Weaslette screamed. "I am having his child."

"Denial, not just a river in Egypt." Bill Weasley stated. 

"Bill, how could you?" Molly turned to him.

"Magic doesn't lie. The Judgment Ritual wouldn't have stated it if it was the truth." Bill declared. He didn't like what was being done, but it was justified, and the fact that they set the contracts so that the person listed as wife had all the power was equally justified.

"The punishment for the signing of an illegal contract for Molly Ginerva Weasley nee Prewitt is hereby confined to her place of residence for the next twenty years. She is forbidden from using anything but the basic of household magic. Arthur Maximian Weasley is hereby declared unfit to lead the Weasley family. Arthur will repay any and all monies stolen by the Weasley team of Molly, Ronald, and Ginerva. The new head is William Patrick Weasley." 

As Ironclaw finished reading the new contract, magic came alive again and those who were being punished fell to the ground as their magic was effected. Poppy began to scan them, as Cornelius, Lucius, and Ironclaw reviewed the amended contract. "Madam Pomfrey?"

"All of them are fine. Everyone, except for Remus, has some type of magical bind on them."

"What happens if we don't marry?" Granger asked. 

"You will lose your magic totally, be banned from our world. However, you won't escape punishment by going into the muggle world. The low job income restriction will be valid and you will find yourself tied to a muggle as a husband, to fulfill the role. Lady Magic will select the spouse." Silverax explained.

"You have to the end of the month to be married." Griphook stated. 

"It appears most of you are aware of what is going on. Can someone please explain to us who are in the dark?" Tonks asked. She looked around the room.

"Certainly." Harry was almost bouncing with delight.

"You can't. It's in the contract." Dumbledore felt smug.

"No, I can't tell any Auror, Ministry employee, but you see you didn't say I couldn't tell my friends, fellow students, or even have someone else tell. Severus, would you care to explain?"

"I would love the opportunity to explain, Master." Severus stood up. He moved to the spot where the ritual was still set up and started to explain. 

Rita was loving it.


	15. Finally?

Severus stood in the center of the platform in the Great Hall. He had been looking forward to this day for a long time.

"He can't. He isn't allowed." Dumbledore tried to stop it. This couldn't be happening, there was no possible way. He knew he had prevented this from happen, he thought.

"Yes, he can. You never said anything about him telling Aurors, Ministry people, or anyone else for that matter. Since we have a nice mix and I don't want to break the contract, Severus will have the honors." Harry answered. Harry wasn't sure but it appeared to be more people in the Great Hall than when we started. He glanced at Lucius, who gave him an "I didn't do anything face."

"Albus Dumbledore sold me, not sure exactly how he managed that, to Harry Potter to cover up his crimes." Many gasped in shock, they couldn't believe their beloved Dumbledore would do something like that. Severus saw the growing number of adults in the room. He recognized most were from their group of people, he also recognized a lot of important position in the ICW, Wizenagamot, and the Ministry. Lucius and the others had been busy why the judgment was happening.

"Everything I will tell you is the truth." Severus continued. "Albus Dumbledore created this war between him and Voldemort. He created it for power. He wanted to control all of the magical world. If you think about his positions, you will realize that. He says he doesn't want control, yet what part of our government, our children's lives, or even our own, isn't he involved in?"

Severus watched the people start to realize what had been truly going on. Severus knew all of Harry's followers had been working on spread the news to everyone. "He has stopped classes because he doesn't approve of them, never mind that they are part of our culture. He has prevented our children from learning magic that was once common knowledge unless it was something in the family, your child's magic was stunted. He claims it was to make the muggle-born feel welcomed. My question is why? Why should we have to give up all of our customs and knowledge for those you already are part of our ancestry and would like to feel connected to that aspect of their culture?"

"So what do away with the muggle-born, ban them?" Someone asked. 

"No, the exact opposite, welcome them. They are from our squib lines. Dumbledore has known this and has used his power to keep the vaults from those lines to himself. He has stolen their rightful inheritance. He has kept them from being able to work in our world with all the laws and restrictions enacted. The muggle-born go back to the muggle world because of the lack of jobs, mostly due to lack their lack of knowing our customs. We can't have a muggle-born in the office of Ritual Certification if they don't even know about rituals or even that the office exists. We can't have a muggle-born in dangerous certificates if they aren't even aware of what might be dangerous versus family magic." Severus glanced around and could see the quills of reporters writing.

"Albus Dumbledore sold me to cover up his theft from the vaults of my master, to cover up the fact he has been using his seats illegal. He even placed my master at the home of his abusive muggle relatives, knowing that the Potter Wills listed people who could and would have taken Harry Potter. He even sealed the Wills to keep the news from being released. He kept Sirius Black in Azkaban and hid him when he escaped, knowing the man was innocent and didn't get a trial. Yes, that is right, Sirius Black is innocent and didn't get a trial. It was Peter Pettigrew who killed those muggles. He is the one who aided the return of Voldemort." Severus glanced back and looked at Harry, who nodded his head.

"Dumbledore sent two third-year students back in time, using a time-turner to save the life of Black, Pettigrew and us when the dementors were here at Hogwarts. The same dementors that at the beginning of the school year almost Kissed students on the Hogwarts Express, at a Quidditch game later that same year, and what was done? Nothing. They remained on the grounds. Fudge and Dumbledore allowed those dangerous creatures here. Dumbledore likes to say he tried to stop it, but frankly, if he truly wanted them gone, he could have petitioned the Board or the Wizengamot, but he didn't. My master was almost Kissed on the train and on the Quidditch pitch."

Lucius stood up. "It is true, he could have petitioned and had them removed, just based on the fact they were on the train. I tried to have them removed but got blocked by Dumbledore and Fudge. They repeatedly told me how dangerous Black was. My question is during that time frame, Black made it into the school twice, how come the wards never alerted Dumbledore about the break-ins until after the fact?"

Dumbledore went to speak but Minerva cast a quick Silencio on him. "Sit down and listen, no more excuses." She told him. "I warned him numerous times about the dangerous he had accepted over the years. When he placed the Philosophers Stone here or when the Chamber was opened, even the illegal entry of Mr. Potter into the Triwizard Tournament. I am still baffled by the fact that it took almost ten months to realize that Barty Crouch, Jr., was using poly-juice to appear as Albus' close friend Mad-Eye Moody."

"I am wondering how he never knew either. Especially since the wards should have detected Crouch's dark mark." Moody yelled from the back of the room. He was never going to get over spending ten months in a trunk.

Harry stood up and peered over the heads of the students to see Mad-Eye standing by Tonks. He realized Mad-Eye was part of them now when he saw Mad-Eye and Tonks tilt their heads towards Minerva. He waved.

"Each of the mentioned events were created to test my master, to make sure he would be our Savior, to make sure he wasn't another Dark Lord in the making." Severus continued. "He allowed the books to print all those stories so that no one would forget the Boy-Who-Lived-Who-Knew-Nothing-About-Our-World when the was brought back. That is correct, Harry Potter was denied knowledge about everything until his eleventh birthday. I am sure many of you who had met him before that were wondering why he never properly greeted you, never returned the bows you gave him in the street, never introduced himself as Heir Potter, that is the reason why. Dumbledore dropped him off at night, on his muggle relatives doorsteps, against Minerva McGonagall expressed concern, with just a note."

"It's true, I warned him they were the worst sort of muggles. He left him on the doorstep with a simple note."

"Yes, it's true. Hagrid was the one to tell me I was a wizard when I first meet him. My letters were denied me by my muggle relatives. My first one even stated that my room was the cupboard under the stairs. He repeatedly returned me to them, despite my desire to not return and I mentioned how much we hated each other. I got told that they loved me and shipped back." Harry added. He watched Tom walk to Rita, who nodded her agreement to whatever Tom asked.

"I believe it's time to take matters into the DMLE hands." Madam Bones stated. 

"Gladly, the goblins have the evidence you will require." Lucius stated, causing Dumbledore to look surprised. "You also need to arrest Hermione Granger, Molly, Ronald, Ginerva Weasley. You should question the staff and members of his Order. I should state, most had no idea what he was doing."

"Aye, it's true." Minerva sighed. "Albus kept things close to his chest. The ones Lucius mentioned are the ones who the goblins have discovered where willingly aiding Albus in his plots."

"How could you?" Granger screamed. "We have to defeat You-Know-Who and it's important for the greater good." Someone hit her and the few Weasleys in trouble with a Silencio, while the Aurors moved in to arrest them.

"You know I was wondering when that would be mentioned." Tom stated. "If you studied your history, you should have realized that line was used by his ex-boyfriend, the Dark Lord Grindelwald. It is on the fortress he built."

"Here a few other things to think about." Severus paused, waited for dramatic effect. "Who was the one person that said the Dark Lord would return? Who was the one person who declared Harry Potter defeated him, yet still claims that he will return to cause another war? Who is the one person who hid Harry Potter for almost a decade, while he controlled the Potter seat and inheritance? Who is the one person who knew the full prophecy, yet never let it out?" 

"Dumbledore." Several voices rose with the answer.

"Exactly, a prophecy that says the Dark Lord shall be vanquished by Harry Potter. He did it. Nowhere in the prophecy does it stated that it must be numerous times, or that the Dark Lord will return. The ones that have been caught during raids, have they said the raids were on the orders of the Dark Lord?" Severus asked.

"No, actually they did them on their own, including the Longbottom raid on 4 Nov. 1981." Madam Bones answered. This news caused a few more who didn't want to believe what they were hearing to question why they were following Dumbledore. 

The former Death Eaters and Order members liked how Severus was wording things. Tom was grinning like a loon watching the crowd ate up Severus words. Most, he knew, might not have believed Severus if he didn't have the backing of Minerva and Harry, despite the facts. "The goblins can confirm what you are telling us? A reporter asked. 

"Yes, they will gladly submit all the information and evidence to Madam Bones, and I was informed by Ironclaw, the Head Account Manager, that they are willing to answer any and all questions." Lucius informed them. 

"What does this mean for our world?" Another reporter asked.

Minerva stepped forward. "For Hogwarts, it means a return of a lot of the banned books and classes. A balance in magic will be taught. Yes, dark magic will be taught, but carefully monitored. Dark magic doesn't equal evil. There will be still magical spells and rituals that should and will remain banned, however, blocking whole branches of magic are limiting us. Parselmagic, for example, as a lot of healing spells, more powerful than the ones we are currently limited to."

"A few classes aimed at muggle-borns will be introduced. The classes will be focusing on our culture, religions, rituals and views. Stress should be put on the fact we are not asking them to switch religions, but we want them to be aware of what their world is about." Madam Longbottom stood up. She gave Neville a brief smile. She hadn't been able to talk to Harry directly, but she had been talking to his supporters, the biggest help was Neville.

"Mr. Potter, how do you feel about your life being exposed?" Another reporter asked.

"My life has always been exposed. The important part of this gathering is that we want to fix our world, bring peace back, end the strife. I am not saying it will be easy but we need to get back to the harmony of magic. Dark Creatures are not evil." Several surprised yelps were heard, some started yelling. Harry let them go on for a few minutes. "Tom."

Tom smirked as he cast the Silencio spell over everyone. "Let me speak before you start a riot." Harry stated. "We never had a big problem with any creatures, dark or light, until Albus Dumbledore started to restrict their movement, restrict their job market, and restrict their medical attention. Headmasters in the past at Hogwarts could decide who attended. We have had those who have banned muggle-borns from attending in the past, however, Albus Dumbledore is the first to ban the children in Knockturn Alley, not because of their income, but because they might be dark. He banned creatures, except for one, the one he wanted to use as a way to gain control over the werewolves. He only gave scholarships to those that are from light families. This needs to end. This attitude is what has caused the problems. Before you start saying how the werewolves or vampires attack for no reason, think about a few things." 

Harry paused, looked around making sure he had everyone's attention. "Think about if it was you. You had no food, told you couldn't marry, couldn't have any children, told you couldn't work, told you couldn't live in certain places, told there would be no medical help for when you are injured, how would you react?"

"Some of you might be saying, it's not a reason for attacks." Tom continued. "But honestly if you were a vampire and saw walking food, smelled it, and were starving, what would you do? After being denied your basic rights. Vampires only need a few sips of blood a week, they want to have donors that are willing, but Dumbledore and the Ministry prevented that. It's against the law to willing supply blood to a vampire, so what other option did the Ministry leave them? It's a crime for them to feed, so if they feed, they will be put down, if they don't feed, they go into bloodlust, and will be put down. What way would you want to go?"

"Werewolves can take the Wolfsbane Potion, it's designed to control the wolf. If the werewolves were given access to this, able to get medical help, we might actually see the disease erased. Instead, the price of Wolfsbanes it out of their price range because of the Ministries laws. Laws Albus Dumbledore and a few others created and put in place. Wolfsbane is expensive to make, only certified Potion Masters should make it, yet the Ministry prevents us from providing the werewolves with it by sanctioning potion ingredients that would make it. They have limited the amount I, and other Potion Masters can buy at a time, limited the amount a store can carry. If they are so worried about our safety, why have they placed these sanctions and laws?"

Tom removed the Silencio. They could hear the voices of people talking to their neighbors, friends and even the reports confirming what they heard. Minerva grinned, as Madam Bones moved to the platform. "As the Head of the DMLE, I can tell you what they have stated it true. I can also state these issues will be investigated and a thorough report will be presented to the ICW and the Wizengamot. Corruption will be rooted out, and we will all work together to fix this."

Harry quietly said to Tom. "I think there is our new Minister."

"I agree, Master." 

They listened to Madam Bones and a few other Wizenagamot members express their concerns and how they were willing to fix things. Harry wanted to laugh as he watched Dumbledore and his pets being escorted out by the Aurors.


	16. Chapter 16

Minerva, with Lucius, returned to Hogwarts. They were smiling so brightly that no one would have recognized either of them from pre-Dumbledore. They headed straight to Severus' quarters, where they knew most of the group would be gathered. 

As they headed into the dungeon area, they saw Bella and Neville were giving some of the first year students some assistance in their defense in one of the bigger open classrooms. They saw Lady Longbottom seated in the corner of the room, beaming with pride at how much her grandson had changed. "I would never have expected that." Minerva commented to Lucius.

"Me either, but Neville and Bella are healing each other. He even asked Luna out." Lucius put his hand on Minerva's arm and pointed. "Draco is going to be asking Padma to marry him. Colin finally asked out Millie, and Pansy and Dean seem to have made a match."

"Really, so many Snakes marrying Lions." Minerva knew the house rivalries had decreased by she never expected to see so many matches happening. "Phineas was saying it is the first time in centuries that Hogwarts Houses have been united."

"That is good news." A voice behind them stated, Minerva and Lucius had their wands out and faced Harry. "Jumpy, aren't you?"

"We were just on our way to see you." Lucius greeted.

"Everyone is waiting, I had to go and get a book for Auggie." Harry held up the book in his hand. 

____________________________________________

Once everyone was seated, meaning Lucius, Minerva, Filius, Severus, Tom, and Harry, Lucius gave them all a real smile. "All the marriages occurred this morning, after a very short trial for everyone involved. Magic's punishments remain as it the official punishment. Now there is an official record of their crimes. They were all given truth serum, and the memories have been stored as evidence."

"The Board also agreed with the new budget, ideas, and classes. They are actually going to have a goblin liaison to work with the Board and Hogwarts to prevent any type of fraud or mismanagement." Minerva stated. "Tom, you are now the official Defense and Dark Arts professor, with Harry and Severus serving as your Assistant Professor. Severus, you are officially back to being the Potion Master of Hogwarts, and tenure Professorship has been granted retro back three years, with Harry and Tom serving as your Assistants. Harry, once you attain your Master, the three of you will be in charge of those three classes." Minerva handed them the official paperwork. "Neville has been officially accepted as Apprentice and Assistant to Pomona, Luna, Pansy, Colin with Poppy. Draco was also approved as your Apprentice Severus."

"All of our requests were granted. They were actually very impressed with how the sixth and seventh years have been doing so far." Lucius added. "Minerva is now official Headmistress, Filius, if you wish they wanted us to extend the invitation to you becoming the new Deputy. Minerva suggested, and it was accepted, that each Head of House will now also have a deputy too."

"What about Severus?" Filius asked. "He was already assisting Minerva."

"I can't because of my status, along with the Head of House, and other duties, it would be too much. I will assist if needed." Severus answered. He had already discussed this with Harry, and Harry was fine with what Severus wanted to do.

"I gratefully accept." Filius informed Lucius. He took the scroll that Lucius handed him. He was official now the first Deputy that was 1/2 goblin.

"Ministry?" Harry asked. 

"Amelia is going to run as the Minister. Kingsley, Tonks, and Mad-Eye are going to remain in the Auror department, as they clearly didn't know the truth. Kingsley is going to submit his application for the head of the DMLE. Moody is backing him. I don't believe that will be an issue." Lucius replied.

"No, as long as he is honest, I am fine with it. Anyone have any concerns regarding him?" Harry looked at the ones he considered his advisors and friends.

"I don't believe there were any." Minerva commented. "I did mention to the Board, that we would like to have an Auror or two per year come and speak to the students. I am hoping to use it as a way to heal the damage that Albus has done."

"Sounds good to me." Harry responded. "What about the whole Dark Lord business?"

"That is an interesting thing. The goblins arrived and presented proof that Tom Marvolo Riddle, Lord Voldemort, is now longer among the living. They submitted paperwork, stating he is deceased, but have no record of how he died." Lucius gave Tom a look.

Tom arched an eyebrow. "I had it set up years ago before I even disappeared the first time. I just selected to use it now."

"What did you do, Tom?" 

"Master, I just informed my account manager that since I am not longer Tom Marvolo Riddle, Lord Voldemort, and since you have control over my seats, to declare him deceased and release the vaults and anything else in that regard to you."

Harry smirked. "Lucius, I believe I am going to need your help in handling all of our vaults, estates, and seats."

"I will be happy to assist. I am sure Severus and Tom will also assist." 

"Oh, they will." Harry smirked. He was going to make sure they did. They were going to be in charge of their own assets, but he also wasn't naive enough to believe he was able to handle his and whatever would be required by him in regards to their accounts.

_____________________________________________________________________

Three years later:

"Professor Potter." They heard yelled. Harry, Severus, and Tom turned. 

"Oops, sorry, I mean the one who does potions." The first year stated. 

"Have to be a bit clearer." Draco said from the entrance to the doorway of his office. "They can teach potions too."

The first year looked flustered. "Him." He pointed to Severus. "Madam Pomfrey needs this." He handed Severus a note. 

Harry grinned. "I will tell you a secret." Harry leaned down and in a low voice said: "just call us all Professor Potter, give any of us the note, and we will get it done."

"Yes, Sir." The first year turned and almost ran off until he remembered who he was near and walked away.

"You know with all the duplicate names for Professors around here, you would think we would have a much better system." Padma smirked, handing her son to her husband, Draco. She was the Assistant Professor to Filius. They started to walk to the potion labs. 

"Just wait until all of our kids start here. That is going to create even a bigger mess." Fred Weasley joined them as he exited his first year Ravenclaw/Gryffindor class. The school was now completely full and they had two Professors for each of the core subjects per year. 

"How did it go?" Severus was the official head of the Potion Department.

"Good, no melted cauldrons." Fred answered. "George had one earlier in the Hufflepuff/Gryffindor class. We need to watch out for Mr. Andrews, Neville compared him to himself in his first year."

Severus groaned. "I will inform everyone at the next staff meeting." 

"Professor Potter!" They heard yell.

"It's going to be a long day." Tom muttered. That was the sixth time they had heard their names, and it wasn't even lunch.

"I do believe it's your turn, Tom." Harry grabbed Severus' arm and escorted him away before Ian Gregson could approach them. The boy could spend hours asking endless questions, and the three people he always asked were the three of them.

_____________________________________________________________________________

"Master." Severus wrapped his arms around Harry. "It's almost time for bed."

Harry turned his head, gave Severus a kiss. "Where is Tom?"

"Getting the bedroom ready, Master." Severus ran his hands partly up Harry's arms, and back down. "We are just waiting for you, as we are both ready."

Harry arched his eyebrow at him. "You are just telling me now? You know I enjoy watching you two prepare each other."

"So are you going to punish us for it, Master?" A naked Tom asked from the doorway.

"I don't know, do you think you deserve one?" Harry's eyes raked up and down Tom's body. 

"I do." Severus rubbed himself against Harry. "Please, Master?"

"What am I going to do with the both of you? I just can't seem to get you to behave." Harry turned in Severus' arms, wrapping his own arms around Severus. 

"Seems we are in need of more training, Master." Severus gave him another kiss.

"Yes, Master, you have been slacking off on our training." 

"Slacking, have I? Well, let me fix that." 

____________________________________________________________

The Baron floated away and headed down to the Chamber of Secrets. "They are at it again."

Rowena smirked. "I told you they would get Hogwarts back to herself."

"She is full again. Happy." Helena poured a cup of tea. 

"About time, I thought that old goat was going to cause the old girl to die." Salazar remarked. "Godric, get out here, Helena is pouring tea."

"Hold onto your broom, I am coming you old snake." Godric replied. "Think I would miss Helena's tea after all these years." 

They ignored him, as Helena poured. "So when do we want to tell them the next part of the real prophecy?" 

"Soon, give them some time to enjoy themselves. They are almost ready to know of it." Rowena gave them a slight smile.


End file.
